


Well, why not her?

by thesquidwardqtentaclesfiles



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/F, F/M, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, There be torture in here, There's funny stuff in here too I promise it's not all horrifying like the tags make it out to be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2018-09-26 03:44:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 62,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9860936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesquidwardqtentaclesfiles/pseuds/thesquidwardqtentaclesfiles
Summary: Nicole was supposed to be with Waverly, not her. Spend the rest of their dorky ass lives together in a house with a white picket fence, 40 cats, and make a bunch of kids she was probably gonna have to babysit. Well life didn't happen that way.





	1. What is Happening?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing  
> *and cries about it*

The gun flew out of her hand and landed in the snow next to the trio with little sound. “Well you said you were ready for anything.” Waverly said softly with a sheepish grin forming on her face.

“I didn’t mean that baby girl…” Wynonna replied, her voice barely above a whisper.

Doc still had his gun drawn refusing to holster it. Waverly shrugged “Sorry Nonna… I guess I didn’t think that one through.”

“No you didn’t.” Wynonna was still on edge, her body refused to relax. Something about this just wasn’t right.

“This is just unexpected of you, never known you to uh… pull a her” gesturing to Wynonna “it’s new behavior.” Doc added

“I guess I picked the wrong time to try and be badass huh?”

“Oh honey the worst time.” Wynonna relaxed and drew Waverly in for a hug. That was a mistake, Waverly shot out her arm and the gun popped out of the snow and went sailing through the air into her hand.

“Wynonna!” Doc dove at the women knocking them to the ground. He struggled with Waverly for the gun until she kicked him off sending him crashing into a tree. With Doc out of the way Waverly turned the gun on Wynonna.

“Baby girl please” she held one hand up “don’t do this!” Wynonna scrambled to push herself up off the ground with her other hand but she kept slipping in the snow.

Waverly smiled “No Wynonna Earp I must.” Her voice was deep, otherworldly.

“No Waverly fight it! Please!”

For a moment, just a moment Waverly’s eyes flickered from black to brown/green. That was all Doc needed. Three shots rang out hitting Waverly once in the shoulder and twice in the chest sending her to her knees before falling to the ground completely.

“No! Doc why?!” Wynonna surged to her feet but Doc stopped her from getting close.

“Let me go asshole!” She struggled against his grip but he was stronger.

“That is not Waverly! We need to leave!” He cupped her face in his hands to try and get her to look at him but she refused to make eye contact.

“I’m not leaving my baby sister to bleed in the snow so let go of me.” Wynonna’s voice was no longer shrill but dangerously low. Then she turned her eyes to him.

“That… is not Waverly.” His breathing was shaky and sweat was dripping from his forehead.

“Let. Me. Go.” She looked away from Doc and back to Waverly.

“Wait, where is she?” Doc looked at the red stain in the snow and then all around.

She was gone.

 

One shower, new uniform, and one to many ibuprofen later Nicole was manning the front desk. After meeting up with Nedley and dodging his numerous attempts to get her to the hospital he relented and let her man the desk.

“No Edna it’s not in the water.” Nicole’s eighty-three-year-old neighbor Edna Garrity called the station as soon as she ran into their other neighbor, Joan Fitch; who happened to be at the party.

“Nicole don’t you patronize me; I have the right to know how they were poisoned so I can protect myself!”

“Just don’t drink any champagne Edna I have to hang up.” She sighed internally, she liked Edna but the woman just could not end a conversation.

“Wait, wait, wait you’re still taking me to that Italian place in Calgary tonight?”

“Yes of course.”

“Ok fine, and wear something nice.” And with that she hung up.

Nicole let out a noisy sigh she had pent up and scrubbed her hands over her face.

“Probably the most phone calls you’ve ever dealt with in your life?”

Startled, Nicole jumped in her seat smacking a knee against the desk “Ah, ow, – sighs – hi Mrs. McCready.”

Gus McCready stood in front of the front desk, bundled in a grey parka and blue scarf. She leaned against the desk wincing as Nicole vigorously rubbed her knee “It’s Gus Nicole, just Gus.”

“ ‘kay, Gus. That was Edna… my _other_ girlfriend.”

Gus raised her eyebrows in surprise “Oh please tell me how.” She couldn’t help but laugh, Nicole just looked so aggrieved. Nicole just groaned in response.

“Hush you and let me back there,” – gestures to the door – “so we can talk.”

“But–”

“Nicole”

“Fine, but don’t tell Nedley.” She looked around quickly to make sure the coast was clear before motioning for Gus to come on through.

“Honey why are you even here Waverly said the bruise took up most of your chest.” Gus said as she removed her scarf and coat and tossed them on the conference table, revealing a red flannel shirt and blue jeans.

Nicole glanced over her shoulder, smiling “It’s not that bad, Waverly tends to exaggerate when distressed. It was just nice to have Kevlar this time.”

Gus raised an eyebrow “There was a last time?”

Nicole had made her way over to her desk to grab her water bottle, she nodded while taking a sip. “There were several times.”

“Really now,” Gus was curious, she didn’t really know all that much about Nicole other than what Waverly had told her. “please, do tell.”

“Chrétien didn’t believe we needed it apparently.”

Gus was shocked, there was no way the woman in front of her was that old, “You baby-faced liar gimme your driver’s license!” she stormed over to Nicole grabbing her cheek.

“Gimme it!” She poked the officer repeatedly in the stomach for good measure.

“Ow! Stop!” Nicole failed in her attempt to swat the other woman away. Her ribs protested the action but she ignored the pain.

“Gimme!”

“No!”

Nicole continued to half-heartedly fight off Gus’s attempts to grab her wallet when she noticed a figure in the lobby.

It was Waverly. Nicole’s smile dropped and concern replaced the levity in her eyes. Gus stopped her assault and followed Nicole’s gaze.

Waverly stood in the lobby her face tear-streaked, eyes red and puffy. And frightened.

“Nicole?”

“Waverly?” Nicole rushed out of the bullpen to her girlfriend, cupping the younger woman’s face gently in her hands. “What happened what’s wr–” There was blood. There was blood on Waverly’s jacket. There were _holes_ in Waverly’s jacket.

“Oh my god, ohmygod!” Nicole scooped up Waverly carrying her into the bullpen “Gus, first-aid kit, that cabinet!” She placed Waverly on the large table and hurried to remove her winter gear. Waverly’s white sweater was soaked with blood. Gus ran back with the kit but dropped it in shock.

“What? Wha–” Gus’s mouth hung open. Nicole’s was nearly on the floor, for a brief moment time stopped.

“Ok it’s ok.” Nicole tried to calm a now sobbing Waverly. She managed to get the young woman to lie flat on the table and quickly yanked up the sweater.

There was blood, but no holes.

“Wha– what? Honey, what happened?” Nicole sat Waverly up. The girl clung to the officer.

“I– I… dunno, I was with – sniffs – Wy and Doc and then I was here!” She began to cry again and pressed face to Nicole’s chest. Nicole held Waverly and rubbed her back “It’s alright, it’s ok, I got you” she looked at Gus “call Wynonna, I gotta get Nedley.”

Nicole attempted to free herself from Waverly’s grasp but the woman wouldn’t let go. “No! No please! Don’t leave me!”

“Oh honey I’m not leaving you.” she pried herself from Waverly’s death grip but not before Waverly grabbed her face and pulled her in for a kiss. Nicole broke the kiss and placed a quick one on Waverly’s head before heading to the door leading out to the lobby.

Gus stopped her “I can’t get Wynonna; it keeps goin’ straight to voicemail.”

“W–” She was interrupted by a forceful tug on her utility belt. Her gun was yanked free from its holster and now in Waverly’s hands.


	2. Questions and demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The demon makes an appearance at the station, and we learn some new things about Nicole.

“Waves? What’s goin’ on?” Nicole couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Oh _this_?” Her voice was deep, echoing.

Nicole stiffened, “Waverly?”

Waverly’s eyes were black, her face slowly turning sallow “Oh I’m sorry officer she isn’t here.” It laughed, Nicole’s stomach turned. _What the hell is happening_ she thought.

Gus began inching towards the door. The creature leveled the gun at her. Nicole put out a protective arm out, pushing Gus behind her. “Hey, hey… let’s talk.” She held out a hand to placate the creature, wincing a bit with the pain it brought to her chest. It lowered the gun.

“Ok… ok, uh…” Nicole was at a loss. What the hell was she supposed to say this thing?

“What are you?” Gus growled, breaking the silence. Nicole turned her head to Gus, eyes wide.

“What am I you ask… difficult to answer. I come from the darkness.” Nicole whipped her head back to the creature, she wasn’t expecting it to answer Gus. The creature seemed lost in a thought.

She watched the creature intently, was it actually _thinking_ about itself? Nicole had never seen a horror movie where the possessing demon sat down and had a full conversation with the people it was terrorizing. But this wasn’t a horror movie.

“Wh–who are you?” Nicole asked hesitantly. She braced for a negative reaction. It never came.

“Who am I you ask? I have no name.” The creature stated plainly. “We are not given names in the darkness.” it added after a moment.

“Oh… I’m sorry?” Nicole could feel Gus’s eyes boring holes into the side of her head. She could feel the heat in her cheeks.

“Are you a boy or a girl?” Gus let out an exasperated sigh and buried her face in her hands.

“I have no gender!” barked the creature causing both women to jump, and Nicole to push Gus further behind her.

“Oh, you’re not one of those edgy clowns on I see on Tumblr sayin’ they got no gender an’ shit are you?”

“The hell’s a Tumblr?” Gus emerged from behind Nicole scowling.

“You have a Tumblr?” The creature asked, disapproval showing.

Nicole looked between the two “Please forget I said that… out loud, ‘kay?”

 

“I have no time for this idiocy!” shouted the creature. It aimed at Nicole but lowered the gun. A smile spread across the creature’s face “I don’t think the heir would care too much if your life ended, but you” it looked at Gus “Your death would be… devastating.”

A shot rang out and Gus found herself on the floor. Nicole was on top of her, groaning in pain.

“Oh no you fucking don’t!”

It was Wynonna and Doc. The pair rushed into the lobby guns drawn. The creature snarled and aimed at them, but Doc was faster; hitting it in the right shoulder.

“What in the fuck is happening?” A uniformed man entered the room. It was Deputy Miller.

Instead of engaging the new threat, the creature disappeared.

“Shit, Nic!” Miller rushed over to the women on the floor.

“I’m –groans– fine.”

Wynonna was by Gus’s side in a flash as Miller gently rolled Nicole off of Gus. She’d been hit in the side.

Miller motioned for Doc “Help me get her up here!” Doc grabbed Nicole’s legs and the men set the injured woman down on the table.

“Oh god you’re bleeding.” Wynonna was cradling Gus’s head in her lap, crying.

“That’s not mine, I’m fine.” Gus pushed away Wynonna’s hands “Help me up.”

Wynonna wiped her eyes and pulled the woman to her feet. Doc had grabbed the forgotten first aid kit as Deputy Miller undid Nicole’s shirt buttons.

“Ah, it’s jus– it’s just a graze…” Nicole mumbled while attempting to sit up.

“No Nic” Miller pushed her back down “that’s a chunk, Nedley come in, over.”  

Wynonna and Gus stood next to the desk trying to keep out of the way. Wynonna watched Miller fight with Nicole; who struggled valiantly to get out of his grip and off the table. He was tall, leanly built, as pale as Nicole, face slightly rounded, with gray hair just beginning to pepper his dark hair. His brown eyes narrowed as he thwarted yet another attempt from the injured woman.

“Cut it ou–”

“Come in Tom, over.”

“’bout time.”

“Sir there’s been a shooting in the station, one injured.”

“What? Who?”

“Me…”

Nicole decided to join in the conversation.

“What happened Haught?”

Everyone in the room looked at each other, “Um… we gotta discuss this in person sir.”

Tom had broken the silence. He shrugged when Nicole made a face at him.

“Fine, call for an ambulance.”

“Noooo” Nicole whined, dragging out the o.

“Yes.” Tom had finally managed to get the rest of her shirt buttons undone and cut through her tank top. “Can you get me some gauze pads?” he asked Doc.

“Sure thing, uh…”

Gus rolled her eyes and pushed Doc out of the way, “Here, and the tape.”

“Disinfectant wipes too…” He trailed off as Nicole glared at him. He sighed, “Don’t look at me like that, you want gangrene?”

Nicole just continued to glare.

Tom, Doc, and Gus rolled her onto her uninjured side and Tom began to clean and dress the wound. Gus grabbed Waverly’s jacket and put it under Nicole’s head.

“Where the hell is everybody?” Wynonna asked Tom as he unwrapped a wipe.

“Out patrolling, dealing with those government fellas… I think, sorry.” Nicole hissed in pain as he dabbed the wound edges with a wipe.

“Tran, Colton, and Deveraux went to that trailer park lookin’ for that Del Ray guy–”

“He’s dead.” Wynonna cut him off.

“No shit, should tell ‘em that, maybe later. Is that thing gonna come back?”

“Not for the time being, I reckon there being’ too many people probably scared it off.”

Wynonna scoffed.

“You disagree?”

“It’s a demon Doc,” she shrugged at Gus’s raised eyebrows “they don’t scare easily.”

“Then why would it leave?”

Wynonna didn’t have an answer for that. Maybe Waverly stopped it. Maybe Dolls would know. Fucking Lucado. Then she noticed something. A scar, on Nicole’s stomach right below the ribs. A bullet wound? The fuck?

Wynonna could have sworn Waverly said Nicole was a rookie cop. Like right out of the academy first time cop shit.

Why the fuck would she lie?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I unintentionally made this story a slow burn. My apologies.


	3. Well...shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cat's out of the bag.

“Nicole?”

“Hmm?”

Wynonna observed the woman, she grimaced in pain with every touch to her injury. Her eyes were shut tight. Gus had called 911 so they were just waiting on the paramedics. Tom was bandaging the wound.

“I thought you said you were a rookie cop?”

Nicole opened her eyes, her breaths were quick, shallow, “I… am, why?”

Wynonna scowled and thought _why is she lying to me_. “Well, I’m just trying to wrap my head around why an allegedly rookie cop has bullet wounds?”

Nicole’s eyes narrowed, “I am… a rookie… cop,” she drew in long breaths, trying to ease the pain, “but I am… not, a rookie soldier.”

_Well shit_.

“What the hell’s been goin’ on in here?” Nedley had finally arrived, looking a bit worse for wear. Poison hangover probably.

“Waverly Earp is possessed.”

“Tom! Really?” _Is he fucking serious_? Wynonna couldn’t help but stare. She expected Nedley to laugh. He didn’t.

“Great, good, you wanna add anything?” He gestured at her and Doc.

“Yo– you–you’re just gonna take this at face value?” She looked at Gus, Doc, and Nicole; who was still glaring at her. She was going to have to apologize later.

“After all the bullshit I’ve just dealt with, why the hell not?”

She could have cried, actually cried. Big, ugly sobs.

“Are we not forgetting something?” Doc interjected.

“What?” Wynonna’s mind was too busy racing to think about anything else.

“Didn’t that government woman say she was going to bomb this town?”

“What?”

“Oh god my cat!”

“Uhh, she can’t. She doesn’t have jurisdiction. Right?” Wynonna replied adding an eyeroll.

Nicole sat up, pushing Tom away, “Not unless Ottawa approves it.”

“They wouldn’t” Gus took a seat on the table next to her.

“We’re the U.S.’s fifty-second state of course they would.” Nicole put an arm around her waist, pulling her close.

“That is very true. I don’t know how I’d even begin to evacuate this town.” Nedley leaned against the desk. He ran a hand through his hair. He looked distressed.

“Can’t go runnin’ around screamin’ the Yanks are gonna bomb us.” Gus put her face in her hands and sighed.

Right then the paramedics entered the lobby. “Perfect timing, she’s all yours.” Tom grabbed the door for them, pointing at Nicole, then to the stretcher.

She made a very childish face at him and shook her head, almost losing her balance in the process. Gus steadied her though and led her to the stretcher.

“I’m gonna go with her, call me if something comes up.” And with that the two women were gone leaving Wynonna and Doc to catch two extremely clueless men up to speed.

 

In the ambulance Gus watched as the Owen the paramedic hooked Nicole up to a few monitors and stuck an oxygen mask on her scowling face.

“None of this is necessary.” She stated taking the mask off only to have it shoved back on.

“Cut it out Nic.” Apparently they knew each other.

“Ok, while we got some time,” Gus took one of Nicole’s hands in hers “I think we should discuss some prejudices you have about people who view gender a bit differently than you, and how could learn to appreciate these differences…”

Nicole’s eyes widened in horror as she yanked her hand away, “You stay away from me with that hippie liberal crap!”

Owen rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone to check Facebook.

 

Outside of town, in the trailer park the Revenants gathered. Enraged that yet again the Earp bitch thwarted their plans but also because Bobo planned on walking out of the triangle without them. His betrayal stung. But they didn’t feel it as viscerally as his brother did.

He was tall, solidly built man. His chestnut hair was short, but just long enough on the top to be parted on one side. Always the right side. His whiskey eyes were hard, slightly sunken into a smooth angled face. His lips were thin and a very pale pink. His nose was a little longer than he would have liked but still complemented his forever young features.

He stood on the outside of the trailer park leaning against a heap of junked cars and stared out towards Purgatory. He for once was grateful he was dead as the bitter wind battered his flimsy blue button up and thin, grey dress pants. His old black boots were caked in mud but he didn’t care. He had more _pressing_ issues on his mind.

_Fucking bastard_. _Fucking perverted ass child fucking bastard_. Jojo Svane was seething. Robert promised him they would get out of this together. He _promised_ him. Now what was he supposed to do? The other Revenants didn’t trust him; said he didn’t have the spine to lead. He’d betray them like Robert did. He had the spine. He most certainly fucking did. And he could definitely be trusted. How could they not trust him? In case they forgot, he got fucked over too.

But where would he begin. He never had any plans of his own.

Constance could fix this. She had plans. Good ones. He just had to find her.

 

Wynonna and Doc left the station with the sole purpose of finding Waverly.

“If I was a scary powerful demon where would I hide?”

Doc spared her a sideways glance, “Why out in the open I reckon.”

“Uhh why? We’d be on it like lips on a Kardashian!”

Doc’s eyebrows shot up.

“…What?” She gave him a puzzled look.

“I ain’t never heard that expression in my entire life. And what is a Kardashian?”

“They’re people, famous people… anyway be serious. That thing would never risk walking around town after that spectacle in the station, it’s gonna want to lay low.”

They made it to Gus’s truck and hopped in, “But think Wynonna, only a few people know the truth and who’s gonna believe us if we ran through town sayin’ little Waverly is possessed? If we saw it what could we do? Nothin’.”

He wasn’t wrong so she nodded, “Ok, let’s head back to the homestead, maybe something in Waverly’s research can help us figure out what this thing is.”

The ride was silent for the most part. Gus texted that Nicole was getting her stitches and Nedley showed up with Tom and Chrissy.

“I guess he’s angling to get her released. Let her come and help us out.”

“Hmm.” Doc was staring out the window. His pensive expression hid his apprehension. This was nothing like Revenants. This was an ancient evil, no bullet from a magic gun was going to fix this.

“What the hell is that?” Wynonna’s shouts pulled him from thought.

“What is what?” He asked looking around the barren stretch of road.

“Up there!” He looked to where she was pointing to. Two objects streaked through the sky leaving long trails of exhaust in their wake.

“Wynonna… ar–are those the bombs?”

“Oh well fuck me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know I actually googled "Canadian slang terms for ambulance"  
> Just felt silly afterwards.  
> And it seems Nicole has some prejudices to work out.


	4. Safe, for now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The creature reappears, certain death is thwarted, and Wynonna and Doc have a "talk".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole chapter was a pain in the ass to write. I'm looking particularly hard at you Wynonna.

 

“Oh god this is so bad!” She slammed on the brakes, sending Doc flying into the dashboard “Dude seatbelt!”

Which apparently didn’t matter because she was out of the truck in a flash. They were nearly to the homestead and there wasn’t single other car on the road. “I gotta call Gus,” she fumbled the phone with shaky hands “they gotta get out of there!”

Dazed, Doc emerged from the truck gripping the exterior for balance, “Warn a man next time will ya!” his unfocused eyes scanned the sky “Where’d it go?”

“There!” Wynonna pointed, here whole body trembled with the gesture “Come on pick up Gus!” Wynonna paced the length of the truck, Doc still seeing double tried to focus on a lonely little tree on a snowy little hill. Its branches moved gently with the wind.

But his vison cleared and the tree was suddenly not a tree. It was Waverly! “Wynonna?” he kept his voice low, thinking the demon would hear. Wynonna must not have heard him, “Gus? Gus! God get out of there–”

“Wynonna!” Doc grabbed her face and yanked her head in the direction he was looking.

“What? Wh–” She stopped and her jaw nearly hit the ground. Waverly was shrouded in a dark mist with her arms stretched to the sky. She was shouting something but from their distance neither could make out what she was saying.

“The missiles,” Wynonna breathed out “that thing’s going for the missiles.”

As if on cue the mist surrounding Waverly shot into the sky instantly catching up to and enveloping them in a now pitch black cloud. It dissipated moments later, leaving not one single speck of either behind.

“Holy shit,” Wynonna turned to Doc; who had an equally stunned expression plastered on his face “wh–wh–wha–where?” Doc shrugged.

“Wynonna? Wynonna!” Oh right, Gus.

“Uhh… the bombs are gone.”

“What? How?” Wynonna threw up her free arm with a noisy sigh, “I don’t know the thing did it!”

“Did what?”

“Made ‘em go away!”

“How?”

“Where’s Waverly?” Doc interrupted before Wynonna could explain.

“What?” She looked around the wintry landscape. _Where was Waverly_?

Gone again apparently. She made a mental note to thank the creature. “Well I guess we better get to the homestead now, can you bring Haughtpants there when Nedley gets her sprung?”

She heard a quiet sigh on the other end, “You have my truck Wynonna.”

Wynonna glanced over her shoulder, _oops_. “Well she has a car doesn’t she? Swipe the keys.”

“Oh uh-uh, no one drives my car but me.” A new voice entered the conversation.

“Hey Nicky…” She turned to Doc, cringing slightly. He just rolled his eyes. _Thanks for the moral support, jerk_.

They got in the truck. No point hanging around like sitting ducks. It took a couple of turns to get truck started, “I just thought since you’ve been riddled with bullets,” Doc snorted, she mouthed _what_ “Gus could drive you to my place…”

“No.”

“Why?” _Friggen ginger jackass gotta be goddamn difficult_.

“Waverly has some of her research at the station and it’s closer than your place, so Tom and I are gonna sift through that crap. Plus, I have plans tonight.”

_Are you fuckin’ serious_? “Break them!”

“No one cancels on Edna Garrety and gets away with it Earp you know that. I’ll come by when I drop her off.”

Wynonna could have sworn her eyes managed to roll so far back that she could see her brain. Then she had a thought, “Hey, could you and Tom check out the blacksmith’s place? It’s out by the pine barrens–”

“I know the place–” Wynonna could hear a pained hiss “Oooh that hurts, you think she’s got like books and stuff on demons?”

“Well she was a witch so high probability.” They pulled up to the homestead. Doc got out but Wynonna remained; forehead resting on the wheel.

“Gus’s makin’ grabby hands me, I’ll talk later.” She could hear the phone being passed.

“Well crisis averted.”

“For now until Lucado finds out Purgatory is still standing and tries again. Or comes to investigate.”

“I’m bettin’ we’ll be seein’ her soon then,” Wynonna heard arguing in the background “Will you people shut the hell up–”

“I don’t wanna go to the VA!”

“No one said you needed to go Deputy–”

“I have to go Wynonna.” Her voice was restrained in emotion; which meant she was either about to yell at someone or hit them.

“Alright Gus.” Hanging up, Wynonna stuck the phone in her back pocket, “Doc, can we not, just not anymore?”

He rounded the truck and opened her door, “Then who will?”

“I dunno, maybe we can get Nic and Tom to do it. Waves said she spends too much time playing Call of Duty anyway.”

He let out a dry chuckle, “This isn’t something we can pawn off to Purgatory’s finest, let’s go,” she shook her head, lips turned up slightly “now before your sister decides to send her death mist after us!”

“Oh fine!” Her body felt heavy, too much happened in the past twenty-four hours leaving her just so physically and emotionally drained. But she dragged herself out of the truck and strode past Doc to the house.

She felt like she was forgetting something, what though? _Dolls would know. Dolls…oh shit, Dolls!_

She spun around, “Oh god Dolls! We have to get Dolls!”

Doc waved her concern away with a dismissive gesture, “Oh fuck him he can spend some time with his Black Badge buddies we have bigger problems.”

“We need him,” she threw her hands up, voice raising several octaves “He has the resources, the people, th-the…” She was walking backwards now, blinking away… _were those tears?_ _No, why would she be crying?_ “He knows what he’s doing! I don’t!” She jabbed a finger at Doc “You certainly goddamn don’t!”

His eyes narrowed and his lips thinned, face twisting to disgust, “No, no, no, no…” he growled “I know what this is. _We_ don’t need him. _You_ need him.” He stepped toward her, she backed away “ _You_ can’t do this without him!”

“We are not doing this now!” She stormed into the house with Doc hot on her heels.

He grabbed her arm and spun her to face him, “We most certainly are.”

Jerking away she asked, “Why now? I thought everything was fine?”

He sobered, “No, it wasn’t appropriate for the occasion Wynonna…” trailing off he fiddled with his hat, avoiding eye contact, “I–I thought it meant something you know, us?” he waved the hat back and forth for emphasis.

“Oh Doc,” Wynonna buried her face in her hands “it was just sex…” she mumbled.

She peeked out from between her fingers and watched as his expression grew sorrowful, “Well it uh–it uh wasn’t to me…” he was at a loss.

Now she felt like shit, “I’m sorry, I was just looking to blow off some steam… you know a good fuck?” her awkward joke did little to diffuse the tension. Sighing, she lowered herself into a chair, “I thought that’s what you wanted too. I–I, I’m used to men only seeing me as well you know…” she cleared her throat “so I thought you did too.”

Doc bristled at the implication, “I never saw women like that, never in my life I–”

She held up a hand, “It’s fine. Maybe we should’ve talked about it, you know? Be on the same page.”

They were quiet for a moment. Neither of them were particularly skilled at feelings so it was a relief to Wynonna when Doc finally nodded and replied, “Yeah, should’ve said somethin’ about it.”

“Ok, yeah, cool, glad we agree.” She bolted out of the chair and practically ran down the hall to Waverly’s room. “I’ll check in here, you grab the living room! She’s got all kinds of crap in there!”

Grumbling to himself, Doc trudged into the living and nearly tripped over a file box, “Gah! The hell?” The living room was covered in boxes. He gaped at the sight. _What in the actual fuck? None of this was here yesterday._ On the coffee table, a file box labeled ‘ **Constance Clootie** ’ sat opened and mostly empty. Its contents littered the table.

“Well I’ll be…” A ghost of a smile formed, “She would have a box on you.”

 

“God she has so much shit, where the hell do I start?” Wynonna sifted through files labeled by names of revenants. She picked up Bobo’s flicking through it until a highlighted passage caught her eye, “Robert Svane,” his picture was attached to the sheet “Bobo’s real name apparently, ugly prick.” Just looking at his picture made her heart hurt. Her thoughts drifted to Willa, she couldn’t save her, not really. Bobo made sure of that. Before the tears could start she buried the thought, Waverly needed her now. Before she put the file back she noticed a hand written note under the passage, _brother?Joseph?_

Wynonna’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head “Doc? Doc!”

“What?” He entered Waverly’s room carrying a file box.

“Did Bobo have a brother?” she handed him the file.

The neutral expression on his face fell, concern replacing it. “Well he never told me,” he read Waverly’s note “Brother? Joseph? I don’t recall meeting anyone with that name. Where’d she find this?”

Wynonna shrugged, “One of these damn books. Uh, did you find any witch stuff?”

Doc didn’t respond, he still had his eyes glued to Bobo’s picture. Hate burned in them.

“Doc?”

His head snapped up, “What?”

“Witch stuff? Did ya find any?”

“Oh, uh,” he looked momentarily lost before tossing of the box’s lid “this stuff is on the Stone Witch. There’s spells in it, stuff on necromancy, demon summoning…” Wynonna started to speak but he held up a hand, “Nothing on getting rid of demons as far as I can tell, gotta give it more attention though.”

Hope, just a little bit Wynonna thought. “Did you see any books?”

He shook his head, “Not out there,” he watched her shoulders sag “that’s not a bad thing, she’s just got everything in here or at the station.”

He started to leave but she called after him, “Doc?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we ok?” she looked guilty and that angered him.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re fine.”

“We still need to get Dolls.”

He couldn’t argue so he just nodded and added, “I’m sure Officer Haught will have some army buddies who could help us out.” With that he exited the room before she could say anything else.

 

After a mountain of paperwork and several heroic attempts by doctors to get her to stay, Nicole had been officially sprung. Tom, Nicole, and Gus piled into the cruiser, “So where to Mrs. McCready, home?”

Gus shook her head, “I think I’ll help you two, can’t stay home I’ll feel useless. Plus, I think you’re gonna _need a hand_.” She whispered the last part hoping Nicole; sprawled out in the back, didn’t hear.

She didn’t, the twenty milligrams of Oxymorphone had her borderline passed out.

“You know that stuff doesn’t seem like a lot but man does it pack a punch.” Stopped at light, Tom turned to poke Nicole’s leg. She moaned and stirred, “Oh, I called shotgun…why am I here?”

“Because I didn’t want your annoying, medicated ass upfront.” She scowled but her drowsy appearance scuttled any attempts at intimidation. He turned left at the light and pulled into the department’s parking lot, “You look like crap, you should nap.”

Nicole shook her head as he nodded his but her vision blurred so she reluctantly began nodding in agreement, “An hour… two.”

“Good,” Tom and Gus pulled Nicole from the backseat and the three started the long trek to the BBD office “so how’s that busted rib feeling?” he added.

A set of groggy brown eyes stared daggers at him, he just continued smiling.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly think that the whole Wynonna/Doc/Dolls issue has yet to be resolved despite the guys' "bonding" raiding Shorty's.  
> What do you think?  
> This is the last chapter I have pre-written and I'm in the middle of chapter 5 so my apologies if it takes a while to update.


	5. Middle English and Triple Sec

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gus learns a little bit more about Nicole, Wynonna hates Chaucer, and Edna brought stew.  
> Oh and Jojo's an idiot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there is anyone out there who actually knows Middle English please feel free to correct me.  
> This is chapter 5 part 1 because reasons.
> 
> Mentions of war and a little bit of PTSD and depression.  
> Fixed the straggler line.

Back in the station, Tom led Nicole and Gus to the BBD office. Other officers were returning from their patrols so the building was no longer a ghost town. “The hell happened to you?”

The trio had just made it to the door when Deputy Tran rounded the corner. Nicole waved it off, “Hey Linda! Jush a lil’ workplaish viro–virol-yeah.” Her head lolled to one side and she smiled vaguely.

“What exactly did they give her for pain again? Horse tranq?” Gus asked as they entered the office and dropped her into a chair.

“No seriously what happened? There’s blood by the desk and table an’ Nedley won’t say a damn thing.”

“Lin we really can’t say anything either.” He replied tossing his stetson on the table.

“Oh don’t give me that bullshit” She rounded on him, “Partygoers were poisoned, Americans are stomping around giving orders, Haught’s been shot, and nobody’s saying a damn thing! What is going on?”

Nicole giggled as she spun lazily in the chair, “You wouldn’t berieve ush.”

Gus rolled her eyes, “Shut yer mouth. Where do you keep the cots, I’m putting her to bed.”

“Uh storage closet, past Nedley’s office, first right, labeled supply.”

“Got it.” And she was off. Linda turned back to Tom, “Well?”

“Giggles is right,” he grabbed the spinning chair in front of him eliciting an exaggerated pout from its occupant, “you’re making me dizzy. It’s just better if you don’t get involved.”

Linda didn’t respond, hurt shone in her eyes. Then she looked away and resentment slowly replaced the hurt. “I know what this is,” she finally spoke, pointing at him “I know exactly what this is!” She spun on her heels and stormed out of the room, passing Gus.

“Ah shit,” Tom leaned on the chair, steadying it against Nicole’s swiveling “will you cut it out! Why are you getting worse?” Shouting probably wasn’t the best idea, as Gus walked in sending him a stony glare.

“Don’t you shout at her! She’s having a reaction!” Gus trudged passed the two hefting a cot in one arm, and a pillow and blanket in the other. She dropped the cot unceremoniously on the floor at the back of the room and made it up in a huff.

“Sorry, shouldn’t we get her to the hospital?”

“Noooooooo!” Nicole whined.

“Let’s wait and hope it’s just gonna make her stupid for a while. It’s all set.”

Tom hoisted Nicole in his arms and carried her to the cot, gently lowering her. Gus yanked off her boots and tossed a blanket over her, “I’m going to call Edna for sleeping beauty and get her to reschedule… what time is? Only eleven? Shit…”

Tom sat at a desk littered with files, photographs, and loose papers. _Must be Waverly’s_ , he thought to himself.

“Hello? Edna? Hey it’s Gus, how are you… I’m good. I’m just calling cuz there was incident at the station today…” she cringed as she looked to Tom, who cringed empathetically.

“No everyone’s fine but uhh…” well here goes nothing “Nicole was injured…”

Tom watched as Gus pulled the phone away from her and wow does Edna have a set of pipes, “No honey she’s fine it was a graze… no they released her… she’s at the station act–” the line went dead “Oh god…” she shoved the phone in her back pocket and sat.

“Maybe she’ll bring lunch?” Tom said hopefully as he leafed through a file on the “barber”.

Gus snorted loudly as a reply. As she sat, Gus surveyed the room. She’d never been in here before, preferring not to get involved. A huge board stood in the corner. Faces covered most of it with a map of Alberta taking up the rest. _Ghost River Triangle_ , huh.

A rumbling whistle pulled her from her thoughts, her eyes scanned the room until they settled on the blanketed lump at the back. “What the hell is that damn sound?”

“Oh she’s starting, get yer earplugs out.”

“What?”

“Deviated septum and fucked up sinuses.” He nodded to Nicole, who seemed blissfully unaware of the racket she was making.

“How?” Gus sat mouth agape and just utterly stunned that a human being could make those sounds.

“Took the tail end of an AK-47 to the face about a decade ago. Got the guy though.” He added proudly.

“Oh,” the sounds emanating from the sleeping woman were bordering on deafening “How do you know that?”

He put the folder down, a smile tugged at his lips, “Fell asleep watchin’ the game a few weeks back, scared the shit right out of me. Woke her ass up.”

Gus bit her bottom lip to hold back a laugh, then he added, “Don’t laugh it was a late game and she woke the whole damn house up.”

“Who won?”

“Certainly not the Jays!” He got up and joined Gus at the table.

Gus couldn’t hold it, she sputtered out a laugh and slapped her thighs.

Tom sighed loudly, “You stop your laughing she made my kids cry!”

She only laughed harder, “How?” she wheezed.

“Listen to her!” He pointed dramatically at Nicole “She sounds like a freight train fucking a slide whistle!”

She listened, rumble on the inhale, whistle on the exhale. “How has she gone this long without getting it fixed?” She asked after regaining her composure.

“VA insurance for ya, you know the story.”

She couldn’t disagree. Curtis certainly had a difficult time getting services ok’d. God only knows the number of arguments she got into with insurance reps. “Oh I definitely know that story.”

Tom looked at her curiously prompting her to continue, “Curtis was in years ago.”

“Really?”

“Yep,” She nodded and smiled a bit “He joined out of highschool, went into infantry. Didn’t go anywhere though.”

“Yeah I went places.” His eyes darkened with the statement.

Gus decided it was best not to press and switched the topic to Nicole, “What about her?” She nodded at the snoring lump.

“She wore a tan beret so… yeah.” His eyes widened for effect.

_Special forces, who would have though?_ This revelation surprised Gus, Nicole’s demeanor never screamed military. “Doesn’t act like it.”

“It fucked up her marriage…” he replied quietly, then added “tryin’ to change for the kid.”

“What kid?” she asked incredulously.

Tom gave Gus a skeptical look, “She never told you?”

“Clearly not.” She almost shouted.

He cleared his throat, “Well I have said entirely too much so I’m gonna shut my damn mouth ‘fore I make a fool of myself.”

“No you keep talking.” Countered Gus as she jabbed a finger at him.

Before he could respond, squeaks and scrapes echoed in the hall and a walker burst into the office. A small, frail looking elderly woman with the curliest white hair at its helm.

“Where is my baby?” she demanded, gray-blue eyes darting around the room.

Gus gave her a confused look but Tom answered, “Follow the train Edna.”

And that she did, following the snores to the back of the room where Nicole slept, “She’s flat on her back? She has sleep apnea what is wrong with you?”

There were no words, Tom looked on mildly amused while Gus sat in stunned silence. Then another person entered.

Tom swiveled to find Joan Fitch; the town’s tax collector; a tall, statuesque black woman, standing at door holding a crockpot and wearing a bemused expression, and the gaudiest gold fur coat he’d ever seen, “Hi Joan.” he greeted her with a smile but her expression never wavered.

“Shut it Miller, hey Gus” the crockpot was deposited on the table “I’m not gonna bother to stay because I already know she’s not leaving that skinny nerd.”

“How’s Dalton?” Tom ventured, Joan rolled her eyes and scowled.

“I just knew that party was gonna be a disaster. Bobo? Who the hell trusts a man named Bobo? I’m just glad I chose to be the designated driver.” She jerked her head towards the back “What happened?”

Tom spoke before Gus could answer, “Little Waverly” he continued despite Gus’s horror “Yeah she had a little of that champagne last night and this morning said she wasn’t feeling well, started freakin’ out next thing ya know there’s a gun and Nicky’s tryin’ to wrestle it from her.”

Gus sat in dismay, which wasn’t lost on Joan who eyed her suspiciously, “What’s with that look?”

“Uh, uh…” Gus stammered trying to cover, “I just, I’m surprised he’d go around embarrassing her by telling people she shot a cop!”

Joan scoffed, “Oh please, I watched Dalton try and claw a man’s eyes out last night, he could be telling me she was runnin’ ass naked through town…” her tone softened when she noticed Gus’s dispirited look “It was the champagne, we all know Waverly’s not a psycho. I’m sure Dimples will forgive her.”

Gus smiled and nodded as Joan added, “I’m gonna go now, Dalton was out cold when I left him and I don’t want him wakin’ up alone.”

Gus and Tom said their goodbyes and Joan was gone. “What’s in the pot?” Tom asked.

“Stew” Edna replied, rising from her chair, “I figured it’s almost lunch and Nicky would be hungry.”

Gus could only laugh, “Thanks for thinking of us Edna.”

“What?” She settled next to Gus, “Ok now you’ll tell me what’s really going on.” She looked expectantly at them.

“Waverly Earp is possessed.”

Oh god damn it he did it again thought Gus as she buried her face in her hands.

“I knew it!” shouted Edna triumphantly, a smug smile stretched across her face.

“You knew it?” Gus parroted in confusion.

“I told Edwin when we moved here almost sixty years ago something was off about this place, he laughed it off. _Oh it’s just a small town honey_ , well guess what I was right!” She sat with her arms crossed still smiling.

“So what’s the action?” she added as she leaned in and rested her arms on the table.

 

In what seemed like hours later, Wynonna found herself on the floor of Waverly’s cramped room. Books were strewn around her as she sat cross-legged, hunched over a spell book written what she initially thought was English but after a few pages wasn’t so sure.

“I think Chaucer wrote this.”

“He was a religious man, he’d never dabble in the occult.”

Wynonna looked up to find Doc in the doorway, “Know him personally? Didn’t think you were that old.”                                                                                                                              

Doc chuckled as he sat beside her. Wynonna set aside the musty tome and stretched her legs. Her achy joints cracked loudly but it felt so good.

Doc picked up the discarded book titled Derne Arts Essenciales, “Middle English I believe.”

“Yep Chaucer. My legs hurt, my back hurts,” she cracked her neck, “that hurts, god my brain hurts!”

“I don’t think we gave Waverly enough credit for her work.”

“No, no, no we did not. I know she knows how to speak this shit and I know she likes this shit, but Jesus Christ there’s books on ghosts, cryptids, bigfoot, fuckin’ herbs! Since when is a squiggly line a fuckin’ word! How does her brain not leak out of her ears!”

Then she added more quietly, “I wish I stayed…” she held out a hand to silence Doc as he started to talk “Every time she asked for help I told her _oh I’ll just get in your way or you know me baby girl books were never my thing,_ now look,” she wiped tears from her eyes and sniffed loudly prompting Doc to hand her his handkerchief, eliciting a watery laugh from the woman.

“I can only read two of these damn books, _two_. Common Spells and Charms; _in English_ , and The History of Demonic Entities; _in French_. I’m fucking useless, we’re fucked!”

Doc rolled his eyes and shifted to face her, “We are most certainly not fucked. There is my charming and resourceful self, you and peace maker, the kind Officer Hau–”

“No,” she interrupted, “we have three goofy ass cops and a middle aged woman!”

“And one of those goofy ass cops seems to be perpetually full of surprises.” He argued.

Wynonna snorted, “Doc I think you mean full of lead.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Yes and I’m ignoring your _inappropriate_ humor.” She scoffed as he reached for the two books she had set aside. “So this History of Demonic Entities turned up what Waverly calls… uh, goose eggs?”

Wynonna nodded, “Yep, fat ones… which is surprising for a book about demons. Did you find anything?”

He shook his head, “I think our answers lie in these books we can’t read.”

Wynonna groaned and got up, “Well,” she held out a hand for Doc “maybe I should text Tom. Somebody at the station might know how to read this shit.”

Wynonna: Hey do u know other languages?

Miller: Just French but Nicky knows a few y?

Wynonna: Waves has books we cant read

Miller: Apparently Edna knows Latin

Wynonna pocketed her phone and pumped her fists in the air, “We’re in luck dude! Haughtpants is a nerd and Edna knows Latin!”

“Now why would she know that?”

“Why would you question it? Let’s go, get a box!” As Doc left to find said box Wynonna proceeded to pile what must have been twenty… no twenty-four, holy fuck why was she counting them onto Waverly’s tiny bed, adorned with a candy pink comforter and the frilliest throw pillows she’s ever seen.

Since he was taking forever she decided to snoop. Waverly’s white oak dresser was littered with beauty crap and knick-knacks but it was a photo that caught her eye. _Nicole_ , of course it would be. Stuck in the mirror’s frame was a photo of Nicole sitting in her cruiser, oblivious to her photographer. “Nice Waves, totally not a stalker.”

“Found this thing…” Doc finally returned.

“Oh what is that?” His “box” was a dirty, lime green tote which had what she was hoping was dirt smeared on the side.

He shot her an exasperated look, “The biggest box I could find _dear_ , now let’s pack this shit up and go.”

 

Tom’s phone went off as Gus was explaining the Earp curse to Edna, “Oh, Wynonna wants to know if I speak other languages, just French…” he typed out his message “I’ve always wanted to learn Portuguese.”

“I know Latin, does that help?”

“Well let’s see,” he read the reply “probably they can’t read some of the books.”

“Idiots.” Edna replied dismissively.

“I wouldn’t argue but in their defense Waverly’s literature tastes usually run to the no longer spoken type.” Gus stated, feeling somewhat indignant on behalf of Wynonna and Doc.

“We should probably get out to Mattie’s while it’s still early.”

Gus nodded and turned to Edna, “Are you gonna be ok alone with her?”

Edna scoffed, “Who do you think was with her on Remembrance Day when she decided to crawl into a bottle of Triple Sec and refused to come out until midnight?”

“Midnight?” Tom asked loudly as he grabbed his discarded hat, “Triple Sec? Edna why didn’t you call me?”

“You were not required I had everything under control.” He opened his mouth to argue but she continued, “We watched Golden Girls and Voyager and she spent the better part of the day crying into a pillow, that’s it.”

He threw his hands up in defeat, “Fine Edna help her ignore her problems let’s go Gus.”

Gus went to protest but decided she was out of her league so instead she gave Edna a quick shoulder squeeze and chased after Tom.

 

While Gus and Tom ventured to the Blacksmith’s, Jojo Del Ray paced the length of his brother’s trailer. “Did Earp kill ‘er?” He asked his confidant, Corey Milton.

“Can’t, your brother said Holliday was tied to the witch, if she goes he goes.” His green bloodshot eyes followed Jojo as he continued his pace. He combed fat fingers through his brown, yet balding mullet. Jojo’s pacing was starting to make him antsy.

“Didn’t kill ‘er, what’d they do with ‘er?” Corey shrugged.

“Where do you put a witch you can’t kill?” The voice was low, echoing.

“What?” They jumped at the sight of the youngest Earp who was standing at the door. Her eyes were black, skin sallow. A twisted smile spread across her face as the two men stood frozen in place.

“I’m waiting.”

The men glanced at each other, Jojo let out a nervous chuckle and Corey fiddled with the tassels on his leather jacket, “Uh, I uh, dunno.” Jojo replied after a moment.

“Are you not demons?” The creature spat, disgusted.

“Of course!” Objected Corey and the creature shot him a withering glare.

“Are you sure?” It laughed mirthlessly. Jojo had never met Waverly Earp personally but knew of his brother’s fondness for the woman. So it disturbed him to see her like this, ghoulish instead of angelic, cold dead eyes instead of lonely. Bobo always said Waverly had the loneliest eyes but nobody ever bothered to look.

“Yes but we don’t know, honest.” The creature rolled its eyes and sighed.

“You were never the bright one Joseph, salt…”

“Salt what?” His confusion was genuine; he knew nothing about witches or the occult.

“Witches. Hate. Salt.”

He stared blankly until it sighed. Pinching the bridge of its nose the creature continued, “Salt drains their powers.”

“The salt flats!” Corey shouted triumphantly, “I’m so smart!”

The creature raised an eyebrow and Joseph could no longer hold eye contact, “That’s past the triangle we can’t go there.” He stated.

“Well get somebody who can!” The men jumped at the outburst.

Then the creature started towards Jojo, pursuing him to the end of the trailer. When it closed the distance between them it grabbed him by the collar, yanking him down to eye level.

“Now with that out of the way,” Jojo struggled against its grasp, the creature laughed “I’ve helped you now you must help us both.”

“How?” he asked through gritted teeth.

It smiled, “Wynonna Earp.”

“What about her?” he’d given up struggling.

“You need her gun, you need her dead, you need to know what her and her friends know.”

“And?” His faced scrunched in confusion.

It growled in frustration and threw him to the other side of the trailer. He collided with Corey and they both landed on the rickety table snapping it in two. “We both need the Earp bitch out of our way, I have a plan _if_ you imbeciles can manage to not fuck it up.”

It pulled out Waverly’s phone, “But you have to do something for me.”

“What?” Jojo asked hesitantly as he shifted off of Corey and onto the floor.

It smiled, “You see this pig?” shoving the phone in his face the creature brought up a picture of a uniformed Nicole, “The little Earp bitch loves this pig. I still don’t have total control over this form. So I want her brought in alive and kept alive.”

“Hey we’re gonna need some answers–” The creature backhanded Corey, the force sending his head careening into the mini fridge.

“I didn’t say hands off!” It backed away from the men and settled on the couch, “The little Earp is feisty, still has strength. When you’re done getting the answers you seek… or not. I want the pig.”

“Oh,” it took a minute but Jojo understood the creature, “you think if she sees you fuckin’ up the cop she’d be easier to manipulate, I getcha. So what did you have in mind?”


	6. Secrets and hack jobs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicole asks for help from an old friend. Tom learns that she's keeping a nasty secret and Wynonna wants to know what it is. Waverly reappears.

“Place has always given me the creeps.” Gus mumbled, mostly to herself as she slowly made her way up to the shop.

“You come here often?” Tom asked, his voice light and teasing.

“Once or twice. Her and Curtis were suspicious of each other, I never understood why.”

Slipping on the ice, Tom reached out for Gus to steady himself nearly taking them both down, “Ah –chuckles– oops, that could’ve been bad uh,” he straightened himself out and continued walking, despite Gus’s stare boring holes in his back, “So uh, maybe he knew she was a witch?”

“Maybe.”

The shop was eerily quiet. The air was cold, dense. Though it hadn’t been abandoned long, thick layers of dust had begun to form. “I guess we should look in these cabinets.” Tom suggested as he examined the various tools on the tables.

“I think we should just take everything and skedaddle,” she replied tossing books and various occult items into large crates.

“Why?” He looked around warily waiting for something to pop out.

“Don’t you feel it, it’s like a bad energy?” She turned to him, visibly on edge.

“Not until you said something.” He drew his weapon and started searching the shop.

“Something’s watching us, I can feel it.” She hastily stacked jars full of weird liquid in a decrepit looking crate and shoved it at Tom.

“What? Like the blacksmith?” Tom laughed awkwardly, holstering his weapon and grabbing it from her.

“I said _bad_ energy Tom.” She threw a scowl in his direction and hurried out of the shop carrying two small crates of her own.

“Careful of the ice!” He called after her. The crate creaked ominously, “Should’ve pulled the car up.”

And just as Gus suggested, they took everything.

 

 

They were standing in the desert again, just the two of them. Why he always looked so betrayed she’d never understand. Golden-brown eyes met her own. He never said anything, but she couldn’t ever bring herself to look away. “I miss you.” She whispered. Instead of his unwavering stare, his eyes blackened and a sinister smile slowly crept across his face.

Nicole bolted upright in a panic. Gasping for air she threw off the suffocating blanket and surged to her feet, unsure as to where she was. _Cabral. No, he’s dead_. _Waverly… the station._

“You up?” A feminine voice called from the bull pen.

“Yeah,” she croaked, still trying to steady her breathing, “Linda?”

Deputy Tran poked her head into the room, “Good, you seriously thought you could keep this shit from me?”

“What?” Still a bit wobbly, Nicole collapsed into the nearest desk chair.

“You ok?” Linda crossed the room as Nicole shook her head.

“He never looks mean, never.” Linda had never seen Nicole so frightened.

“Tell me what happened.” A nightmare she thought. Nicole was prone to them from what Tom had told her.

“It’s always the same, he stares at me and I get mad at him for getting mad at me.”

“Yeah?” She edged a hip onto the desk.

“But then his eyes were black and…” she trailed off, lost in the memory.

Instead of pushing Linda switched the topic, “Edna’s here. She brought stew.”

“Oh.”                                                                                                 

“And Gus an’ Tom left for Mattie’s. You hungry?”

Nicole shrugged, preferring to stare Edna’s knitting supplies on the desk. Linda slipped off the desk and scooped up Nicole’s boots, dumping them unceremoniously onto her lap. “You’re gonna have to save the moping for later.”

“Waverly?” Nicole asked as she laced up her boots.

“I think the last time anybody saw her was this morning.” Nicole nodded as her expression soured. Cabral’s eyes still lurked in her thoughts. She felt the guilt coming back and suddenly Dolls’s expansive office was as cramped as the hall closet in her apartment.  She pushed past Linda to escape the increasingly claustrophobic room, but the other woman called after her.

“Nicole, wait.”

Almost to the door she turned, “What?”

“It’s going to be ok–”

“Is it Linda?” She countered, cutting the other woman off. “We don’t even know how this happened. We don’t even know what it is!” She turned, storming out of the office nearly bowling over Wynonna and Doc.

“Whoa Haughtpants where you goin’?”

Without looking back Nicole shouted, “To change my fucking shirt! Again!”

“…’Kay. Books ‘r gonna’ be in here!” Wynonna turned to Linda, “The hell’s wrong with her?”

“What do you think?” Wynonna made a face and shrugged, “The stress got to her Earp.”

Wynonna quirked an eyebrow, “A little too quickly me thinks,” continuing into the office they set the massive tote on the table, “she always get this pissy on a case?”

“Only when it’s personal.” Her tone had Wynonna turning for a retort, but she was already out the door.

“So Nicole’s a weak link.”

Doc rolled his eyes, “You’re judgin’ too quick, the woman’s simply been havin’ a tough day is all.”

“And this is how she responds.”

Invading her personal space Doc countered, “And I could say some things about how _you_ respond.”

Wynonna opened her mouth, closed it, and tilted her head. Doc’s face dared her to speak.

Seconds passed before Wynonna spoke again, “Point taken. We should um… unload this shit, gather the troops.” She sent Tom a text saying they were back at the station.

It took them just as long to empty the tote as it did to fill it. Nicole returned looking slightly embarrassed and sporting a blue sweatshirt with the phrase “I hate babies” on it.

“Ya hate babies Caboose?”

“Kittens and milk too.” Nicole answered with a laugh as she took a seat at the table.

Doc was utterly confused, “What in hell are you two sayin’.”

“Oh it’s from a show Waverly used to watch … and apparently Haughtpants too. You look more like a Simmons fan.”

Nicole laughed openly while clutching her torso from pain, “I related to Caboose more.”

“Oh so you’re a team killing fucktard.” Wynonna quipped.

For just a moment, a nanosecond really, there was something in Nicole’s eyes. Whatever it was, it was gone in an instant, “Yep totally me, so watch out.”

“Awesome, so whatchu speak?”

“What?”

“Languages!” Wynonna shouted while waving a massive book around.

“Oh, right,” She pursed her lips in thought, “Umm, other than English let’s see; French, Gaelic, Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, and a little Korean.”

Wynonna’s jaw went crashing to the floor, “Fuckin’ nerd, that’s why Waverly likes you!”

Nicole fired back indignantly, “Fuck you Earp!” Not her best come back, but she wasn’t interested discussing her love life with her girlfriend’s sister.

Bobbing her head in a taunt Wynonna replied, “Wow what a zinger. You’re definitely not the brains in th–” Doc elbowed her in the gut and pushed her away from the table.

“Will you two please be mature,” he sat in the chair across from Nicole, “now Officer I have been meaning to ask you, you wouldn’t happen to have any army friends who could help us find Agent Dolls, would you?”

Nicole stared at them incredulously, “So I’m guessing you can pony up the money for this shit, right?”

Wynonna dropped into the chair next to Doc with a sigh, “Nicole please?” There was no sarcasm in her voice this time.

“Ugh,” she grimaced at the thought of having to ask former friends for help, “I dunno, maybe I know someone who knows someone else…”

“Please?” Wynonna’s voice was verging on pleading.

“Alright I’ll get the phone.” Nicole left the room for her desk, passing Edna and Linda.

“Did you eat yet?” Edna demanded.

Nicole rolled her eyes with a chuckle, “I will in a minute.”

Edna and Linda continued to the office.

Nicole unlocked her desk drawer and grabbed a small, prepaid phone. _Is Paola in the country… yeah I haven’t gotten an email so she’s gotta be_.

8: I need ur help

2: Y

8: Gotta find a guy

2: Wat u got 4 me?

8: Wat u want?

_Oh please don’t ask about Khost_.

2: Khost

_Shit_. The anger hit her in waves, with nothing to punch she sat squeezing the arms of her chair until the worst had passed. Shaking now Nicole shot out of her seat and paced the length of the bullpen. The acrid taste of bile in her mouth had her contemplating finding a trash can. Paola wanted to know, had been wanting to know for years. Her unit reported to Thoreau too. 

 8: Fine

2: Bout time whos the guy?

8: Xavier Dolls US Marshalls

2: Was it u?

Like ripping off a band aid.

8: Yes

2: Knew it

_Of course you did_.

2: Let me ask 1 nd get back to u

8: K later

That won’t take long, Cranston hated her. The answer would be a definitive no. Weak and a little nauseous, Nicole decided to chance food any way. She had seen a crockpot in the BBD office so it was safe to say that was the stew. She grabbed a bowl and spoon from the breakroom had headed back.

Arguing greeted her, “This is not something that should have been disclosed willy-nilly!”

Wynonna shouted at Linda who countered, “And this not something that should have been kept under the rug Earp!”

Insults flew as Linda accused Wynonna of jeopardizing the town who in turn accused Linda of the same by allowing more people to know than necessary, “You don’t know Lucado, they already tried once, they literally blew up a town in the states! She’ll try again!”

“We aren’t a bunch of blabber mouths Earp we can keep this in the department.”

“What the hell have you clowns been doin’ this whole time? Blabbing! So excuse me if I don’t trust you.” She huffed out a breath and began to pace.

“We had a right to know Earp,” Wynonna attempted to pass by but Linda grabbed her arm, “you can trust us,” Wynonna scoffed and tried to pull away, “This isn’t a joke to us either. We want to help.”

“You wanna help? Can you read any of that shit?”

“Is it in Vietnamese?”

“Doubt it.”

“Then not with that,” she released her grip, “You done mopin’ now Haught?”

“Yeah…”

“’Kay, I’m gonna get Frank and Leon they should know people.”

With Linda momentarily gone, Nicole took the opportunity to grab lunch and start on the book pile; grabbing one in French.

“Why do you wear that shirt?” Asked Edna dejectedly.

“’Coz it’s funny.” She replied between bites.

Linda returned with Frank and Leon in tow.

“Yay, Molly and Patricia’s littlest idiot are here.”

“I swear to god, if you weren’t already shot I’d–” Frank shook his fist bitterly at Nicole; who beamed at him despite his threats.

“You two are children I swear to god.” Leon’s French accent was barely discernable after years of away from home.

Leonce Molineux was a thirty-two-year-old Quebecois transplant and a JTF2 veteran like Nicole. She had known him from the OSI clinic in Calgary. He had been the one to suggest the transfer to Purgatory. He was tall and nearly as buff as Dolls with closely cropped sandy blond hair and dark blue eyes.

Francois Deveraux was a born and bred resident of Purgatory and a member of Wynonna’s graduating class. He sported a crew cut, which was a shame, as Wynonna thought he had great hair. His eyes however, were his best feature in her opinion; big and brown with thick eyelashes. And he was probably the only guy she didn’t bang senior year. Mostly because he was too busy getting Kim Philips pregnant and joining the army.

Tom and Gus entered the bullpen moments later calling for help.

“Yo Leon, Frank come grab the shit in the cruiser!” Tom shouted as he carried in a huge brittle crate.

“The fuck is this?” Frank asked rifling through it.

“Evidence now let’s go.”

The aux noes as Nicole referred to them, bitched and moaned the entire way to the parking lot.

 “We grabbed everything from Mattie’s.”

“She ain’t kiddin’ car’s full.”

“Great guys rob the dead, did ya get anything useful? Like a wizard?”

Gus quirked an eyebrow, “No but we got jars or weird juice, moose skulls, and books written in scribbles.”

Nicole threw her hands up in mock celebration, “Yay scribbles, love scribbles.”

“Less sarcasm, more reading.”

“What else is here.” Nicole sifted through, “Umm, this one’s on Fairies,” she held up the on in Gaelic, “uh this one’s probs in Babylonian… don’t quote me. This is on demons,” she set aside the one in Arabic, but the one in Farsi caught her eye, “I think this one is too, it says like Ancient Evils or something the dialect is a bit different. Gotta get a dictionary.”

“That’s… good right?” Wynonna was hesitant but she couldn’t help the optimism bubbling inside.

“Maybe, it’s says ancient. The other two are in I think Aramaic and Hebrew so we’re gonna need help with those.”

“Know any Jews?” Wynonna asked in a hushed voice.

Nicole couldn’t help but snort, “Earp why are you whispering?”

“Don’t want people thinkin’ I’m racist.”

“For associating a language commonly spoken by people of a certain religion? Earp come on.”

“Alright fine… do you know any?”

“Yes. I’m sure one of them will know what it says.”

They continued to sift through books, handing all of the Latin ones to Edna; who remarked about never seeing so many books herbs and werewolves in her entire life.”

“The Romans certainly were a strange bunch.” Edna commented as she flipped through a Lycan history book.

“Well you know… Caligula and washin’ stuff with pee.” Wynonna mumbled eliciting a laugh from Nicole.

Doc’s dramatic eyeroll had Wynonna making a series of increasingly childish faces at him.

Linda banged a fist on the table, “So what’s the plan here people, or are we just gonna sit here like a bunch of asses?”

“Oh that’s right,” Nicole interjected, “this is your op now Earp.” Nicole kicked her feet up and continued to eat, rather smugly.

“Thanks jackass,” the aux noes had returned, with help and all eyes were suddenly on her, “uhh, ‘kay.” She suddenly felt way less gung-ho, and wished Dolls was there.

“We’re waitin’ Earp.” Great, Nedley decided to grace them with his presence.

“Okay,” here it goes, “so I guess you all know about the curse now so I don’t gotta go into that right?” All of the deputies gave a thumbs up… nerds, “Um, sometime in the last day or so Waverly… Waverly, she got possessed.” She said it as if it was a question; like it couldn’t be true, “We don’t know how it happened but we do know that it’s like really powerful and seems to be in total control of her.”

“What are we gonna do about it Earp.” Nedley asked.

“Waverly has a lot of research, _a lot_. I’m hoping that we can find out how to un-possess her. Maybe figure out what kind of demon it is. Gotta sift through all this shit and see what’s useful. Does anybody here know people who speak old languages?”

“I’m sure my cousin does.” Colton spoke up, “He works in a museum, I could send him some scans.”

“Yeah but what if that government lady is watchin’ us?” Gus raised a good point. Was Lucado keeping tabs them?

“She doesn’t know they know.”

“Yeah well the town’s still here, so I’m expecting her to be monitoring all communication.” Nicole was right.

“Then we’ll do it on foot, in paper. No calls, no emails.” Molineux replied, then added, “I know people in the RCMP, I can take some of this stuff up to Calgary and get it analyzed.”

“What if they follow you?” Doc asked.

“That US agent is gone and we got a bunch of weird murders we don’t have the manpower for. So we bit the bullet and asked for help.”

“That’s never gonna work.” Nicole’s flat retort had him scowling.

“And what do suggest we do dear?” He shot back bitterly.

Nicole just shrugged, “I don’t think I can ask Paola for another favor.”

Tom stared in shock.

“What?”

“I didn’t think you guys were on speaking terms.”

“Oh well you know, I decided we needed to be.”

“Huh. Did she get back to you yet?”

“No,” her phone beeped, “yes.”

2: 1 says they’ll ask around

8: just like that?

2: I had to tell them first

Was she fucking for real?

8: what y?

2: not gonna do anything without something first, talk later.

And just like that, whatever was left her resolve was gone. Nicole stood abruptly and walked out of the room, with Tom calling after her, “What did she say?”

“Yes!”

Confused, everyone watched her leave with Wynonna shouting at Tom, “What’s her problem now?”

He shrugged, “Dunno, but your Dolls problem is solved. I’m gonna find her.”

“You do that,” she continued as he left, “Um I guess we made progress with Dolls so Waverly–”

“What do we do if we see her?” Interrupted Linda.

“Play dumb. Don’t follow her.”

“Don’t go anywhere alone with her.” Doc added with a chuckle.

“Stranger danger.” Someone said.

Everyone laughed lessening some of the tension in the room.

It was time to get to work.

In the locker room, Nicole sat with her back against her locker. She clutched a little wastebasket to her chest; feeling that she was about to become reacquainted with Edna’s stew. The nausea came in waves, but nothing ever came up.

Tom cracked open the door, just enough to see her on the floor, “Nic?”

“No.”

“Nic,” he walked in and sat on the bench opposite from her, “what happened?”

“She told him…” Her voice cracked, this was serious.

“Can you tell me?” His voice was quiet.

She shook her head quickly, blinking away tears.

He got up to grab some paper towels, handing them to her. She wept openly, startling him.

“Whatever this is about, Paola felt she could trust whoever she told to keep it a secret.”

She laughed humorlessly, “No, no, you don’t get it. This isn’t an I banged your wife secret; this is an I could get shot for treason secret.”

He felt something in him drop and slipped to the ground next to her, “Shit…”

She turned to him, biting her lower lip, but her eyes were intense… searching. Scrutinizing his face for any sign of judgment.

“I don’t know what to say.” But god did he want to know.

“Don’t say anything.” She got up to wet a towel and pressed it to her eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Don’t wanna go back there with red eyes,” she replied angrily, “look like a little bitch.” She mumbled mostly to herself.

“People are gonna ask…”

“She brought up somethin’ that happened a while back, it upset me.” It wasn’t even a lie.

“Yeah, it certainly did.” He got up and left.

Out in the hall Tom leaned back against the wall and sighed heavily. _Treason_? He’d only known her since August but they had shared so much about their lives he could have sworn they’d been childhood friends. What kind of secret was this to cause her this much distress? How long has she been keeping it?

 Nicole returned to the BBD office and settled back in her seat with little notice from the other deputies. Wynonna and Doc however watched her from the board occasionally exchanging furtive glances at one another.

Nicole grabbed the “Ancient Evils” book and some pen and paper determined to decipher as much as she could before having to run to a translator. She pushed Paola and Khost to the back of her mind and tried to focus her book.

From across the room Wynonna observed Nicole’s every move. She didn’t look so young anymore; not with the anxiety swirling in her eyes and worry lines creeping onto her face.       _What are you hiding? Maybe I should find out…_

She crossed the room to Nicole, who seemed engrossed with the book in front of her, scribbling notes on a pad of paper every few seconds.

“Any good?”

Nicole jumped in her seat causing Wynonna to chuckle. She hopped up on the table and swiped the note pad from Nicole, “Whatchu got so far?” Whatever it was, it wasn’t in English. She handed the pad back to Nicole who set it aside and patted Wynonna on the knee.

“Sorry Earp,” she didn’t look sorry, “just habit.”

“From what?”

“From my translating days.” She replied, smiling.

“Is that what you did… in the army?”

Apparently that was a mood killer, because all of the warmth in Nicole’s face drained. She sobered and straightened out in her chair, “Not really, somebody had to learn how to talk to the locals though.”

“So you volunteered?” Wynonna prompted.

“Yeah…” She looked uncomfortable. Good.

“So what did you do?” Nicole’s features hardened, she licked bottom lip and cocked her head to the side.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that.” She bit out each word.

“You and Dolls.” They exchanged steely glares before Frank interrupted, oblivious to the tension between the women.

“Found some good hooch in one of the crates.”

“Nope not for me.” Wynonna shooed him away, adding, “And none for you either.” Nicole shot her a disgruntled look.

“Really, never thought Wynonna Earp would ever turn down good whiskey.” He walked away bewildered.

“No booze… why?” Nicole was baffled as to why Wynonna would turn it down.

“Need to stay sharp,” she slid off the table and slapped Nicole’s shoulder, “I mean it. Stay away from it.” There was truth in there, no matter how much she wanted to fuck with Nicole. She’d try and stay away from it tonight. No bets though.

Nicole watched her walk away perplexed and intrigued. If she was trying to get information, she was doing a shit job of it. She turned back to her book, occasionally sneaking glances of the other woman and read until she was sure her eyes were bleeding.

 

 

Nicole returned to her apartment just after midnight. As she opened the door she heard familiar strangled meows and smiled as her shaggy orange cat raced to greet her. “Hi baby girl I missed yo– ah!” Pain emanated from her left side as she crouched to pet Jane, “Ah fuck… no wait come back!” Too late, her cries startled Jane as the cat fled to the safety of her bedroom.

“I love you too, jerk!” Adding as she dropped her duffel bag by the TV stand, “I don’t know why I keep you!” Jane meowed a retort.

She stripped off her clothes and shoes as she walked to the bedroom, flicking on lights as she went. Her outfit from the previous day was still scattered along the hall. Only in her underpants she faced the mirror that hung on the bedroom door. The white bandage was already showing seepage from the wound. Another one to add to an ever-growing collection.

The scar from the shrapnel wound barely poked out from the waistband of her grey boxer briefs. The scars on her legs. The bullet wound on her stomach, and from the same shooter, the one on her right breast; which almost took out a nipple. There were others, well-hidden ones that only lovers and doctors ever saw.

She tried to smile for her reflection but found herself just pathetic looking. Too pale, too thin, too fucking sad. It was all too much. She left Calgary to get away from the bullshit, not to find more.

Moving to her dresser she pulled out an ancient, ratty grey sports bra and flannel pajama pants. She stared at a framed photo of Waverly as she dressed.

“Didn’t know you were a photographer Miss Earp.”

Startled, Waverly nearly dropped the camera she was stuffing into her bag, “Geez uh, Deputy uh, Haught–”

“Nicole.” She corrected.

“Nicole…” She looked so flustered and Nicole’s heart skipped a beat, “Yeah uh, Dolls asked me to go photograph some land marks…”

They stood in the deserted bullpen smiling awkwardly at each other until Nicole spoke, “Nikon huh?”

“Oh yeah it’s uh, not mine it’s Dolls’s.”

“Oh,” Nicole swiped the camera from Waverly despite her protests, “Then he wouldn’t mind if I took a picture, would he?” The mischievousness in her voice and smile had Waverly sputtering.

“Gah! Bu–but–but ah!” Her face was a priceless mixture of apprehension and shock. Nicole stepped back and pointed the camera at her.

“Just relax and smile.”

“Ooook, uh… how about this?” She leaned against the conference table with one hand and gave the camera a slow shy smile. How she managed to look so breathtaking in just a red stripe crop top and skinny jeans Nicole would never know.

“Wait, wait, wait. Let me fix my hair!” Nicole laughed as Waverly hurried to fix what she thought was a non-existent problem. “Ok all set!” She went back to her pose.

Nicole took the photo and then another one for good measure, “I want a copy, you can pick which one.”

Waverly looked mortified, “Oh uh w–why?”

“Because I wanna see my handiwork. Now just in case Deputy Marshall Asshat tries to give you grief let’s take one together so he’ll know who the actual culprit is.” Nicole turned the camera on them, threw up the rock and roll sign, and made a funny face. Waverly stuck out her tongue.

“He’s gonna be pissed if he sees this.”

“What’s he gonna do Waves, rendition me?” With that Nicole handed back the camera, grabbed her hat from the rack, and headed out the door.

In what barely passed as a kitchen Nicole stood staring at a nearly empty bottle of Forty Creek. _Earp’s not then I’m not_. She willed herself to not just grab it and chug. It certainly was a struggle. Jane jumped up and bumped her head against Nicole’s arm, demanding attention, “Are you for real?” She shoved at the cat, “Get your dirty litter box feet off my counter!”

Jane ignored her to attack the dish towel by the sink. Then she turned suddenly, growling and hissing.

“What is you–”

“Hello Nicole.”

That voice.

Her body stiffened and her heart raced.

Slowly she turned and was greeted with the sight of Waverly standing in her living room. A smug smile spread across her face. “I’ve missed you dear.”

“Oh I doubt that,” she countered with a laugh, which faltered, “Whatchu been up to?”

The creature only smiled and with a flick of the wrist a drawer opened and a pair of scissors launched into the air. It caught them easily.

Nicole briefly wondered why it choose scissors and not the massive chef’s knife sitting in the knife block. “You gonna slash up my curtains?” She quipped.

It growled and darted towards her; inhumanly fast. Too slow to dodge, Nicole braced for impact as the creature slammed her against the counter. Without any time to recover it hurled her into the living room as she landed on the coffee table. Crying out in pain, she felt her stiches tear and the cracked rib finally break.

Nicole blacked out momentarily giving the creature enough time to cross the apartment and drop bodily onto her, pining her in place. Straddling her, it began hacking way at Nicole’s hair. Regaining consciousness Nicole attempted push it off only to be punched repeatedly. The creature laughed as she grunted in pain with every blow.

Stars dotted her vision as she started to succumb to the assault. The wooden decorative bowl that had been on the table lay next to her on the floor undamaged. She pushed past the fog engulfing her mind and grabbed the bowl, whacking the creature upside the head.

It groaned and relented its assault. That’s all the opportunity she needed and continued striking the creature until she was sure it was out cold. She scrambled to her duffel and fumbled for her cuffs. She slapped them on the creature and grabbed her phone, dialing Wynonna, “Pick up! Pick up!” She shouted.

“Heeyy Haughtpants,” Wynonna sounded a little too cheerful; she probably didn’t hold up her end of the bargain, “What’s up?”

“I have Waverly!” Nicole blurted out.

“Wait what?” If she was drunk, she was sober now.

“The thing–it showed up,” Nicole was breathing too heavily for full sentences, “Just get here!”

“On my way!”

Nicole hung up and went to find something to bind the creature’s feet. She thankfully had a bungie cord in the hall closet. Satisfied that it wasn’t escaping Nicole grabbed a sweatshirt from her room and went to check the damage to her face.

“Oh Jesus Christ!” It wasn’t her face that horrified her, it was her hair. Her beautiful hair. Hacked to bits with just random long strands remaining. “Oh god!”

Wetting a hand towel, she cleaned the blood from her face as she muttered curses. Her now open wound bled profusely, soaking the thin bandage covering it. She ripped it off and held the towel to it.

_What if I hid in my bathtub? What if I just pulled the curtain back and stayed there forever?_ Nicole thought to herself. A bit of levity to dispel some of the tension never hurt anyone. Blood loss ruined the moment however; as dizziness took hold forcing her to rest on the toilet before she collapsed.

In all the commotion Jane fled the kitchen to hide under Nicole’s bed. Sensing calm, Jane went to find her human. She found Nicole and sat in the doorway, meowing her displeasure.

“Oh hi baby,” she patted her lap, “come see me I’m sad and covered in bruises.”

Jane chuffed and walked away, satisfied her human wasn’t dead.

“Oh my god why do I keep you! Furry little bitch!”

Afraid to face Waverly, Nicole sat in the bathroom until she heard pounding on the door.

“Haught? Haught?” It was Wynonna, finally.

“Hold on… coming!” Nicole rose carefully and limped to the door checking on Waverly, who was still out. Peacemaker greeted her first, then Wynonna.

“Ok you little bi–oh wow…” Wynonna stared wide eyed, “you look… um.”

Nicole just nodded and gestured for them to come in.

Apparently, the creature was waiting for a show because as soon as Doc and Wynonna entered it laughed; sitting upright before disappearing from the room.

“Forgot it could do that.” Nicole said with a sigh as she crossed the room back into the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have a tumblr if anyone's interested.   
> thesquidwardqtentaclesfiles


	7. Corollas and Marlboros

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Nicole no longer safe at her apartment, Wynonna has no choice but to take the woman in. They start to bond despite the rocky start.  
> Also douchebaggery 101 lessons from Nicole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Wynonna Earp Season 2!  
> Why did this chapter take me forever?  
> Fun fact: this is only part 3/4 of the chapter 5 saga.

“Th–fuc–wha… where is she?” Demanded Wynonna, who had followed Nicole.

Nicole shrugged as she grabbed the bottle of Forty Creek, “If you didn’t keep up your end, why should I?” She replied, parking her ass in a chair at the table.

“The fuck are you talking about?” She watched as Nicole took a long swig, “Yeah you do that Nic, just turn right to it. Like old times?”

Slowly, Nicole set the bottle back on the table and levied a murderous glare at Wynonna; who continued her accusations.

“That’s it, soon as it gets a little tough ya just fold like a fucking lawn chair,” Doc had joined them anticipating fists, “what happened Nicky, see one too many dea–?”

Doc slapped a hand over Wynonna’s mouth, “Now before you say anything you will regret,” he turned to Nicole, “what happened here?”

Nicole polished off her bottle of scotch, setting it down with a thud, “I was in the kitchen willing myself not to uh … you know,” she added the last bit with a sigh, “and Jane wouldn’t get off the damn counter, and then she started hissing, and that’s when it showed up in my fucking living room!”

“Safe to assume the demon won’t be stayin’ in the shadows any longer–” Doc was interrupted as Wynonna had finally broken free from his grip.

“I guess,” she pushed Doc causing him to bump the side table, “you should stay with us.” The acidity in her voice had Nicole feeling she wasn’t actually welcome; it was just Wynonna not wanting to deal with Waverly’s wrath if the demon wound up killing her.

 The two women stared each other down before Doc placed himself in between them, “This isn’t helping and you both know that,” he attempted eye contact with them but neither would hold his gaze, “ya don’t trust each other and that’s obvious as hell, but you better learn to and quick.”

“Or?” Of course Nicole would have to ask.

“O–” But Wynonna was quicker.

“Or we’ll let Waverly come back and finish you off and she’d never forgive me so let’s get packing.”

“What the hell happened in here?” Nedley’s gruff voice echoed through the tiny apartment.

Nedley and Tom had arrived.

“Oh right I forgot, I totally called for back-up… you’re late.”

“I was in the shower.” Replied Tom defensively.

“Oh my god this place looks like a bomb went off in here.” Chrissy Nedley stepped in to the apartment eyes wide, mouth agape.

“Waverly.” Wynonna, Doc, and Nicole replied in unison.

“Oh wow your hair!”

“Do tell why you brought your kid?” Doc demanded.

Defensively, Chrissy stated, “I wanted to help.”

“Well uh, Officer Haught could use a bit of that it seems.” Doc gestured for Chrissy to come over, “Waverly mentioned you were good with hair.”

She looked embarrassed, “Waverly exaggerates so much but uh,” she cringed at Nicole’s hair, “I think I could fix that…”

“Please?” Nicole begged pitifully.

“Of course, where are your scissors?”

“Uh, somewhere…”

“Here.” Tom handed Chrissy the scissors the creature used to hack her hair off.

“Thank you, now let’s get you situated…” she looked down at the growing red stain on Nicole’s shirt, “you’re bleeding.”

Nicole followed her gaze, “Oh,” she must have set the towel down somewhere, “yeah about that.”

“Do you have medical supplies Officer Haught?” Doc asked while rummaging through cabinets.

“I have a box of Spongebob band aids.”

“You’re a mess Haught.” Nedley grumbled, grabbing the discarded bungee cord and a clean dish towel.

Wynonna took the opportunity to slip away from the group and snuck down the hall to Nicole’s bedroom. It wasn’t impressive by any means; a dark wood dresser, matching night stand, with a full-size bed. The blue curtains complemented the grey comforter.

A photo of Waverly immediately caught her eye, _oh my god not you too._ She wanted to gag. _Yep, I think they’re both in love._ Next to Waverly’s photo was one of a little boy. Red hair, big brown eyes, dimples… _what the fuck?_

He was the spitting image of Nicole, right down to her goofy ass smile. Wynonna darted over to the night stand and wrenched open the draw; a little card board box was tucked away in the back. Pulling it out, she whipped off the top revealing a stack of old photos; mostly of Nicole.

She sat at the foot of the bed flipping through them. They were all photos of her when she was in the military. Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Kuwait; _wait, Kosovo?_

She looked literally the same in all of them, _so Haughtpants is a vampire… nice._

There was one of Nicole prone on the ground, aiming a massive sniper rifle at the camera. She was grinning from ear-to-ear. Wynonna had to admit it was sexy; really, really, sexy.

 

After Chrissy finished with her hair, Nicole; who had noticed Wynonna leave, joined the other woman in her bedroom. Catching her snooping through a box of photos.

“Find what you’re looking for?” She asked quietly.

Wynonna didn’t even jump, she just looked up from her position on the bed, “Does Waverly even know about any of this?”

Nicole shook her head, she grabbed the photo of the little boy and sat beside Wynonna. “I didn’t, didn’t want to scare her away…” she rubbed a thumb over the boy’s face, “She’s so young, and innocent I–I–I thought if I just dumped all of this on her, my kid, my ex; she wouldn’t want me…”

Tears pooled in Nicole’s eyes and Wynonna’s heart sunk… just a little bit, “You big middle-aged baby you really love her, don’t you?”

Nicole nodded, mumbling, “Thirty-five isn’t middle aged Earp.”

Wynonna nearly choked on her spit, “What? Nuh-uh! I was just kidding about that!”

“Well I’m not.” She wiped her eyes but never took them off the picture.

“How old is he?”

“Eight.”

“What’s his name?”

Nicole hugged the picture to her chest and gave Wynonna a small smile, “Nicholas.”

Wynonna snorted, “Oh real original Haught.”

“What?”

She hesitated, but asked anyway, “I-is he yours?”

“Uh technically…” Nicole scrunched up her face, Abby was always better at explaining this stuff, “My ex carried him.”

“Oh…” Well then, “Umm, so Waves has never been back here? Never seen any of this?”

The deer in the headlights stare Nicole was giving her was more than disconcerting, “Um well uh…” She stammered to get the words out, “We uhh, never made it passed the couch…”

“You put your filthy little cop mitts on my sister?” Wynonna stood abruptly, the box of photos falling from her lap.

“Hey I thought I was an upgrade!”

And that was that, bonding time was over as Wynonna stormed of the room uttering inventive, colorful curses.

“’Kay…” Nicole scooped up the scattered photos and hurriedly put them back in draw.

 

“Still can’t believe you’re the real Doc Holliday.” Tom said, a little bit of awe still in his voice.

Doc dipped his head, being out of that well, being a _free_ man; it still hadn’t hit him that his life was known, that he was admired.

“Bet your history books embellished my life quite a bit.”

“So you weren’t a raging anti-semite.” Chrissy deadpanned, sitting with Jane in her lap in the faded grey armchair Nicole kept in the corner of her living room.

Doc turned to find her eyeing him with obvious contempt.

He cleared his throat as heat crept up his cheeks, “I’ve matured greatly since those days I’ll have you know.”

She made an unconvinced humph and went back to petting the cat. The two men he sat in between eyed him suspiciously.

“History books never told me that part.” Tom said quietly.

“Haughtpants put her filthy fucking cop mitts on my sister!”

“Do you have to be so damn childish?”  Nicole said, hot on Wynonna’s heels.

Jane jumped down to intercept her human, winding through Nicole’s legs nearly tripping her, “Janie please,” She scooped up the tiny cat, tossing her over her shoulder, “Sir, I’m not going to bother reporting this.”

“Well Haught you’re going to have to report something because the Tremblays reported a noise complaint, and you know Diane. She’ll want a follow up.”

Because Diane Nosy Ass Tremblay would nag until her dying breath, “Alright fine I fought off a robber.”

“And what did Miss Waverly Earp steal from you Officer?” Doc asked in his sweetest voice.

“Her pride clearly.” Tom said laughing.

“Oh coz Waverly beat you up?” Asked Chrissy, unhelpfully.

Wynonna and Nicole eyed each other. The Earp’s face just daring Nicole to call Waverly weak.

“Dweeb versus dweeb.” Chrissy interjected, clearly undeterred by the tension.

Breaking eye contact with Wynonna Nicole turned to her, “I’m not a dweeb shut up.”

“Yes you are and so is Waverly,” Wynonna grabbed Nicole’s duffel tossing it at her, “get packin’ bitch.”

 

In the parking lot, Wynonna helped Nicole carry her bags, unable to take her eyes off the other woman. Snow had started to fall steadily, adding to Purgatory’s already Christmas white. The parking lot was deserted, save for the two women carting half of Nicole’s apartment to her car. Wynonna had learned more about Nicole in one day than in the near four months they’d known each other.

Nicole came to a halt in front of a gunmetal gray Corolla. _I know this car…_ She’d seen it in the station’s parking lot numerous times; chrome hubcaps, spoiler on the back, even the same wounded veteran plate, it was the sexiest Corolla she’d ever seen. And she didn’t even know how Corollas could be sexy.

“This is your car?” She asked, with a bit more shock than she meant to convey.

“Yeah… why?

“If I wasn’t on the path of straight and narrow, I would have stolen this bitch.”

Nicole opened her mouth, closed it, then replied, “I guess that’s a complement.”

She actually moaned when Nicole opened rear passenger door. It had an all black interior with black leather seats. “Yeah… expect to not find this in the parking lot tomorrow, I changed my mind.”

“Cute, don’t try it.”

Wynonna took the opportunity sneak in to the driver’s seat, caressing the steering wheel and running her hands over every inch of surface.

“Is this a paddle shift?” She asked, running a finger over nubs on the steering wheel.

“Yeah I modded it myself, I hate stick shifts.”

“You modd–” She trailed off in disbelief, “What else can you do?”

“Like with cars?”

“No like other handy stuff.”

Absently brushing snow from the windows, she paused for thought, “Lots of handy stuff I guess.”

Wynonna slowly climbed out of the driver’s seat, “Dolls is handy… when we get him back, and fix Waves you guys could renovate our house.”

Nicole slammed the passenger door shut and started back to the building.

Wynonna chased after her, “Wait, wait, wait,” she reached for Nicole and spun her around, “he told me he took a construction course when he was on medical leave once, coz he always wanted to build his own house, and–”

Nicole listened to Wynonna ramble on about Dolls and his house aspirations, watching blue eyes start to moisten.

It hadn’t hit her yet. This whole situation with Waverly had completely blindsided them, never giving her a chance to focus on Dolls and this Lucado woman.

“What if she hurts him?” Wynonna blurted out, suddenly breaking down into tears, “What if she kills him because we didn’t get there in time?”

_Uh oh_. Nicole reached out to give Wynonna a hug, and was surprised when the other woman threw her arms around her neck and sobbed. Pulling Wynonna in closer, Nicole hissed at the pain in her side but didn’t let go.

Convinced Wynonna was determined to cry for the next hour, Nicole gently cupped her face, “I don’t have an answer ok,” she shushed Wynonna, who had started to protest, “I don’t know what is going to happen. I can’t say he’s going to be fine I don’t know that. But I know he can handle himself.” Wynonna nodded and Nicole brushed falling tears from her face, “Waiting isn’t doing nothing, ok? Running halfcocked through Alberta won’t get us answers any faster.”

“Ok…”

“Yeah,” she took her shirt sleeve and dabbed away tears, “Can we get inside, I’m wet and freezing.”

Wynonna ran her hands through her wet hair, “Yeah we could do that, yeah…”

“Come on,” Nicole slung an arm around Wynonna’s shoulders and led her inside.  

 

“Gus, we’re back.”

“Where is she?” Gus demanded, carrying a comically large first aid kit; a gift from Dolls.

Nicole quietly shuffled in behind Wynonna, placing a cat carrier on the floor and opened the door. “You’re free, go hide and ignore me.” Jane bolted out of the carrier and did just that.

Gus set the kit on the table, “A dish towel and bungie cord? They teach you that in the army?”

Later when everyone started to settle for the night, Wynonna made up the couch expecting to be kicked out of her bed by one of the other three occupants, but was surprised when Nicole gently pushed her aside.

“Oh thanks but I could have done this.”

Confused, Wynonna replied, “This isn’t for you… you’re injured?”

Nicole rolled her eyes and gave her a small smile, “I’m fine Earp,” she took her shirt off and threw it on the chair, revealing a bloodied bandage, “I’m used to the couch.”

“Still, you could make Doc sleep here and take Wave’s room.”

Nicole shook her head, “Nah, I think the geriatrics here should have the beds.”

“The hell did you just call me?” Gus looked beyond pissed.

“I’ll kill you” Doc growled.

Wynonna distanced herself from the angry “geriatrics” and Nicole; who didn’t seem phased in the slightest, but rather amused.

“Oooh you’re gonna get it now Haught, I for the record don’t think of either of you like that, you are youthf-”

“Oh can it Wynonna.”

“How come you and Doc aren’t bunkin’ together?” Nicole wiggled her eyebrows.

It took Gus only a moment to make the connection; she looked to Doc then Wynonna eyes wide, horrified.

Looking back to Doc she made gagging noises and scurried away while Doc couldn’t have looked more offended, “When your wounds heal Officer, you and I will be headin’ out back for some fisticuffs, and since you are a woman soldier I will not hold back.” Turning on a heel, he left the living room in a huff.

Wynonna shoved Nicole, “Way to throw me under the bus jackass.”

Nicole laughed as she plopped down on the couch, “Sorry Earp, didn’t mean for anyone else to hear that.”

“No that was some epic level deflecting Haughtpants.”

“I learned from the best.”

Wynonna scowled, “Who?”

“Abby.”

“And what does Abby do for a living?”

Tossing the blanket over herself, Nicole stretched and adjusted her pillow, “She is a criminal defense attorney.”

“Gah, eww.” That explains that.

“No not eww, I have a really nice house in Calgary… that I can’t be in.”

While Doc was more than content to wait for Nicole’s recovery, Gus didn’t see any need to. She appeared slipper in hand surprising the women.

“No Gus wait I’m sor–”

Wynonna backed away slowly as Gus mercilessly pummeled Nicole with her shoe.

“You wanna call me names ya ginger douchebag! I’ll teach ya!”

Rather than rescue Nicole, Wynonna backed out of the room and down the hall to her room to save herself.

In the hall, Doc listened to Gus and Nicole, quietly chuckling to himself. Debating on whether or not he should go out for a smoke he pulled back the curtain, didn’t want to smoke in the snow.

The steady snow had dissipated to a gentle flurry. _Smoke it is then_. Before he let go of the curtain a figure started down the driveway. _Waverly, you would be paying us a visit tonight._

Black eyes met his. She charged down the driveway, grinning madly. Doc was about to holler for the others when Waverly hit a blueish glowing barrier.

“Holy Fuck!” Wynonna shouted from somewhere in the house startling Doc, but he never took his eyes off the woman outside. She beat on the barrier for a minute before giving up. Winking, she disappeared into thin air.

“Had to have one last show for the night huh?” He growled.

“Dude the gun was glowin’ like mad!” Doc turned to find Peacemaker in his face as an underwear clad Wynonna dangled it in front of him.

“I’m gonna assume it’s because Miss Waverly was just here.”

“What?” Gus came rounding the corner with a disheveled Nicole trailing behind.

“Waverly was here, and trying to get down the driveway when a big ol’ blue wall stopped her.”

“An energy barrier?” Nicole scrunched her face up in confusion.

“Probs, I bet the gun caused it,” Wynonna kissed Peacemaker’s handle, “I love you so much.”

“This house sits on ammonite, so I don’t think the gun _acted_ alone.” He replied bitterly.

“Don’t ruin it. God, I could go for a smoke.”

“I got a pack in my bag, you smoke Marlboros?” Nicole asked.

“You drink Forty Creek and smoke Marlboros? Why didn’t you hit on me first?”

Without saying a word, Nicole briskly exited the hallway with Wynonna chasing after.

“I don’t like them together.” Gus said quietly.

“I believe you can trust Officer Haught to keep her hands to herself.”

“That’s not where I was going with that… yet.”

When Doc tilted his head she just shook hers and headed upstairs to bed.

 

“I didn’t know you smoked.” Wynonna said, swiping Nicole’s Zippo right out of her hand.

She looked mildly embarrassed, “Yeah, I uh, I kinda picked it up when I was in Kosovo.”

Wynonna took a drag, “Saw some shit huh?”

“Actually no,” she lit her own, “There was really nothing to do except stand around and smoke.” Then added quickly, “Don’t tell Waverly.”

Wynonna laughed, “Yeah, ditto. Come on I got an ashtray in my room somewhere.”

“You ever try quitting?” Wynonna asked, rummaging through boxes in her closet.

“I did for a while, then the divorce kind of eroded my resolve.”

“Ah, that’s a shame.” With the ashtray located, Wynonna hopped into bed and motioned for Nicole to come join her.

They smoked in silence. Wynonna’s thoughts had drifted from Dolls to Willa. To what could have been. No, to what _should_ have been. Why did Bobo ruin her? How could she have loved him? _Why wouldn’t she listen to me?_

“I killed my sister…” Wynonna said to no one in particular.

Except Nicole was right next to her, “She didn’t give you a choice.”

“Why? What did it promise her? Why would she have thought any of that would have been better?” Tears again, nothing but tears.

Nicole was silent. Willa was beyond anything Wynonna could have said or done.

“I’m sorry,” Wynonna said, leaving her cigarette in the tray, she sprung up to grab a dirty shirt to wipe her eyes, “sorry.” Sitting again, she scrubbed the shirt over her face. “I can’t do this now I can’t. I can’t lose it. Can’t think about it.”

She turned suddenly, “Tell me a story.”

“What?” Nicole popped up, bad idea. She hissed from the pain and dropped back onto the pillow. _A story? She must be losing it._

“Tell me an army story, make it funny.” Her eyes threatened more tears and Nicole just couldn’t say no.

“Alright, fine.”

Wynonna stubbed out her cigarette as Nicole did the same and moved the tray to the night stand. Then pulled the blanket over them, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Nicole.

“What? I’m freezing.” 

“Ok,” It felt a little weird to be borderline cuddling with her girlfriend’s sister, “Canada had just invaded Afghanistan, and we were still building bases, so the one we were at in Kandahar was a… it was bare bones. No walls, no towers, just chain link fences and patrols. I don’t think I made master corporal yet… no, no I didn’t–”

“You wanna speed it up?”

“Shhh. Well me, Paola, and a couple of guys from the first regiment horse artillery decided we were going to prank some kid who just had a birthday; Smithfield, Hatfield, Mayfield? Well anyway, there weren’t any cameras near the shitters they set up so we waited until he went in–”

“You didn’t!”

“Shhh! We waited until he went in and tipped the whole thing over–”

Wynonna buried her face in Nicole’s neck, “Was it full?”

“Oh god construction was in and out of it all day–”

“No!” Wynonna could barely get the word out she was laughing so hard.

“We hauled ass out of there, and nobody ever knew it was us.”

“God you’re awful.” She had laughed so hard her chest hurt.

Nicole smiled, it was one on the fonder memories she had of Afghanistan. She’d never tell Wynonna that the young man was killed just weeks later after the truck he was in drove over an IED. He was in the front seat. They needed dental records to ID him.

Wynonna didn’t need to hear that.

“You got any others?”

“Oh plenty. Uh let’s see, well this was during Christmas. I just broke up with Becca, I think we were back from Kosovo. It was just us girls–”

“There’s more than two of you?” Wynonna asked, causing Nicole to snort.

“They weren’t infantry, I think they were intel. Anyway, it was Christmas and the base was deserted, so we decided to go to the mess hall… I don’t know why. Well when we got there, they had what we thought was stripper pole just hanging out in the corner–”

“A what?”

“I know, it looked like a stripper pole, on wheels and everything. We were drunk so–”

“’Course you were…”

“Shush. We decided to try it. Paola missed her calling I might add.”

“You have to introduce me to her some time.”

“I think you’d get along. I think, I don’t remember much but I think took my shirt off and threw it at someone.”

“Oooh sexy.” That caused Nicole to blush.

“And hopped up on the pole.” She said a bit forcefully.

“Cue the music.”

“Ha! Not even. I was trying to do the spinning upside down thing when this rickety old janitor waltzes in with her mop and bucket, just looks at all of us and says, ‘You bitches need to get deployed’.”

“Oh god!” Oh that was too much for Wynonna, determined not to wake Doc and Gus she turned into the pillow to muffle her laughter.

“No it gets worse–” Wynonna popped up, giving her and incredulous look.

“How?”

“I lost my grip on the pole after she left and whacked my head on the floor, no shhh,” Wynonna had started to laugh again, “I wake up later to find the base commander just staring at me–”

“Did you get court martialed?” Wynonna interrupted.

 “No.”

“Why?”

“It was Christmas?”

“Unbelievable.”

Nicole continued her stories until she was sure Wynonna had fallen asleep. Too warm and content to move she shut her eyes and was out in minutes.

That night she dreamt of Cabral.

In her dreams, Wynonna and Willa played hide and seek in the barn, no monsters, no fear, just the two of them.


	8. The Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three paranoid adults do something very stupid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it took me 5 months to finish the damn thing. 58 fucking pages and 21115 words.  
> For some reason Ao3 won't let me tag this as a season 2 AU so I'm sticking it here.

Nicole awoke the next morning to the feeling of an empty space beside her. _Must be up already… only six?_

So three hours of sleep maybe?

It was too cold to pull the blanket off just yet, but she sat up anyway. She doubted Cranston tracked down any CSIS operatives with Black Badge ties overnight. Her thoughts drifted to Waverly.

How long has she been possessed?

How did it happen?

Wynonna poked her head in. Nicole didn’t notice her at first, too lost in the hows of possession.

“Morning…”

Nicole looked up. Her left eye was nearly swollen shut and splotches of purple decorated her face.

“Earp.” Wynonna was already dressed, skinny black jeans with a thick green sweater.

With two mugs in hand, she sat, handing one to Nicole, “Face hurt much?”

“Nah, just looks bad,” she looked at the mug and scowled, “is this milk?”

“Yeah… why?”

She groaned, “I can’t have milk.”

Wynonna sighed, “Of course you can’t.” She swapped the mugs, grimacing as she sipped gross milk coffee.

“Where were you guys when Waverly started acting… different?”

Direct much? Well, “At the county line I guess…”

Nicole put the mug on the side table and hopped out of the bed, “Wait a sec, let me get a note pad.” She rushed off only to reappear moments later. “Alright go.”

“It was at the county line, she pulled a gun and Doc shot it out of her hand. She tried to make a joke about it, but… it felt off.”

“Ok,” Wynonna watched as she scribbled something, “what did the monster look like, try to be accurate please.”

“Penises.”

Nicole just looked at her, “Really? Just a bunch of dicks?”

Wynonna nodded, “Penises, big penises… with vagina mouths.”

_Why did I expect her to be mature,_ she wrote on the pad, _tentacle monster with oddly shaped mouths. Another thing to add to my files…_

Nicole sighed internally, doubting there would be any trace of the monster forty-eight hours later, but it didn’t hurt to check.

“Alright, before we head to the station I wanna check out that spot, see if I can find anything.”

“But all that snow?”

“I’m not bettin’ money Earp.”

With Nicole and Doc cleaning off the cars Wynonna took the opportunity to snoop around the Corolla. The glovebox was a bust. So was the compartment between the seats. Whacking her head on the rear view mirror, she managed to dislodge a photo she’d been oblivious to during her snooping.

“Ow… huh?” The photo was of Nicole in her police uniform posing with her son on the steps of some government looking building. He was wearing her Stetson. It was too big for his head.

Wynonna fixed the mirror and put back the picture. _This wasn’t up there last night. Wonder why…_

“Ok,” Nicole and Doc got in the car, “I texted Tom, he and Linda are gonna meet us there, more people, more ground covered.”

“What are we supposed to be looking for Officer?” Doc asked.

Nicole shrugged, “Anything demony I guess.”

 

At the county line, fresh snow covered the area. Tom and Linda had beaten them to the scene by a few minutes and were waiting for them in their cruiser. The five of them spread out, unsure of what they were looking for.

Wynonna noticed that Waverly’s blood was no longer visible. _Yep, this is a bust._

Nicole was at the gate. In the car, Wynonna had told her that once it tried crossing the county line it disintegrated. So no massive chunks would have been left.

That’s when she noticed the little oil puddles in the snow.

Wait? Oil?

She went and grabbed a skinny stick and poked at the oil puddle.

To her shock, the “oil” started to creep up the stick. She screamed and tossed it.

Everyone came running.

“What? What is it?” Wynonna asked.

“I thought this was oil! This is not oil!” Her chest heaved with her heavy breathing.

Wynonna picked up the stick. The obviously not oil rushed to her hand, and like Nicole, she screamed and threw the stick, “All right! Nobody touch that shit!”

She looked at Nicole, who just shook her head and said, “This is it.”

“What’s it?”

“We need a sample of this, I think she touched this.”

Wynonna burst out laughing, “Yeah ok Wave– Waverly touched the sentient Gak. How hard did she hit you Nic?”

She looked to the other for agreement but their faces were grim. Her smile faded. “Doc, you don’t think?”

He didn’t meet her eyes, “Waverly has always been the curious sort…”

She shook her head, backing away from the group, “She wouldn’t, she wouldn’t be this stupid.”

“Maybe she didn’t think anything was gonna happen.” said Linda.

“Noooo.” Wynonna whined, burying her face in her hands.

Doc cautiously put his arms around her, unsure if she would pull away.

“This good though Wynonna.”

“How?” Her question muffled by his shoulder.

“We have the culprit. Now all’s we have to do is figure out what that tentacle creature actually was.”

“I called Frank, him and Leon are gonna bring some equipment.” Tom said, giving her arm a light squeeze.

Quietly she replied, “Ok.”

 

Fifteen deputies and one Nedley later, the sentient Gak refused to be contained. It melted petri dishes and water jugs. Dissolved glass containers. Knocked a pipette clean out Nicole’s hand. The goo from the stick chased Nedley and Colton around gate before rejoining a larger puddle.

Crouched next to the smallest puddle, Nicole eyed it intently, desperate to learn its secrets. Doc crouched down next to her.

“I just don’t get it.” She said.

“Well Officer,” he pulled out a cigarette and lit it, “I do believe you are going about this the wrong way.”

She looked at him incredulously, “How?”

“Well just look,” he gestured with cigarette in hand, “this goo shit has destroyed everything we’ve tried stickin’ it in but what has remained undisturbed.”

“Which is?”

“The earth Officer.”

She pursed her lips, then frowned, “Why didn’t I think of that?” She popped up and shouted, “Does anybody have any clay jars?”

Linda shouted back, “What do you want with my pottery Haught?”

 

With a set of tongs Nicole dipped a jar in to the goo puddle, the other deputies huddled around waiting anxiously, hoping the beige painted jar would hold.

It did.

Inside, the goo sat inert, she swirled it couple of times to see if it would do anything, but it remained still.

Everyone cheered.

Leon stuck the lid on and put a few pieces of duct tape over it for good measure.

“Ok but how are we gonna run any tests on this? We can’t even touch it.” Frank asked as they headed back to the cars.

“Shit we didn’t even think about that.” Tom said as he was getting in to his cruiser.

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out, we’re a resourceful bunch.” Replied Nedley with a reassuring nod.

“Sir it took twenty people three weeks to figure out how to use the broiler setting on the toaster oven in the breakroom. And Nic still can’t do it without help.” Linda just had to remind them of that debacle.

“Oh please don’t remind me, the guys down at the fire hall still bring it up enough as it is.”

 

It was a little after one o’clock by the time everyone returned to the station. Gus and Edna were already in the BBD office. The platter of sandwiches and crockpot on the table reminded Wynonna she hadn’t eaten anything all day.

“Oh is that chicken noodle I smell? I’m soooo hungry!” She pulled the saran wrap off the platter and nicked a tuna salad one.

“What’s in that little jar?” Edna asked her, as she watched Nicole set it down on a table in the back.

“They fink if what Wafery toshed.” Wynonna replied with a mouthful of tuna.

“What? Who raised you?” Edna exclaimed angrily, side eyeing Gus.

“I think Waverly may have touched the tentacle monster’s remains, for lack of a better term.” Nicole supplied.

Wynonna nodded her head and pointed to Nicole, “Waf she said.”

“We don’t know how we’re going to test it.” Nicole added, having grabbed a turkey sandwich.

“There’s some sciency looking equipment in the basement at Shorty’s, it could help us.” Doc said, helping himself to chicken salad.

“I dunno. If it’s anything like what we were using earlier, it won’t be of much use to us.”

Wynonna abandoned the group for soup, the little beige jar sat alone on a table Waverly used to keep her occult crap on. She couldn’t stop staring at it. _Why? Baby girl why did you touch that?_

 

Nicole’s phone beeped. It was Paola.

2: 1 found a few people gonna get back to them later

8: ok status of agent dolls?

2: think hes still alive no terminations or transfers noted

8: thanks

Well that was slightly a relief. Nicole turned to tell Wynonna only to nearly collide into her.

“Well?” She demanded.

“Well,” Nicole needed a second to gather her thoughts, “don’t know where he is, but they think he’s still alive.”

“Now how would they know that?” Doc asked, skepticism heavy in his voice.

“People like to fuck.” Nicole replied.

“Isn’t it talk?” Gus asked.

“That usually happens after the fucking.”

Wynonna snorted and slapped Nicole on the back, eliciting a pained hiss from the woman.

“Oops, sorry.” She rubbed the spot only to have Nicole swat her away.

“Thank you, but you’ve done enough damage.”

“Whatevs.” Wynonna left the group to go hang with the sentient Gak and eat her soup. She felt just a smidge of tension leave her body. CSIS thinks Dolls is alive. How would they know that? Do they know the Americans have been trying to bomb Purgatory? _Is that why? Town’s not gone yet so maybe…_

 

Suffice to say, in their attempt to unravel the mysteries of the sentient Gak, not one member of Black Badge or the PSD got anything useful done that day.

Except for Linda. She remembered to mail the mortgage check, it only took Quyen two weeks of nagging to do it.

 

Finding herself at her wits end, Wynonna gave up trying to get the goo to behave for a microscope and declared to the only two other people in the room, Nicole and Doc, that she needed “mucho alcohol”. To the astonishment of no one, Nicole and Doc happily agreed, and Nicole swiped the keys from Nedley’s office, Tom gave her a thumbs up.

He knew where he was going after his shift tonight.

 

Alone in Shorty’s, the trio split up, with Doc taking his whiskey to the pool table and girls sat at the bar.

“Y’all sure ya don’t wanna play? I’m not bettin’ tonight.” Doc asked as he lined up his first shot.

“Nah I jus’ wanna drink.” Replied Wynonna, who had skipped a glass and drank her Jack straight from the bottle. They drank in silence for a while, with only the occasional clacking of pool balls.

Nicole was unusually quiet. Wynonna watched Nicole out of the corner of her eye as the other woman ran her finger around the rim of her glass.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“You remember how I said waiting wasn’t doin’ nothin’… I lied.”

Wynonna shook her head, “No you didn’t, we did something today–”

Nicole started to speak but Wynonna cut her off, “You were right, on both counts. What the fuck else are supposed to do? We got the goo, just need some info, and we got conformation on Dolls… just need a location. Your way works.”

Nicole smiled a little. It was a relief to be reassured that someone thought she was making the right calls.

“This is my op,” Wynonna said, making a sweeping gesture with her bottle of Jack, “my op, and you’re my broody army guy sidekick until we get Dolls back.”

“Broody?”

“Yep my broody model sidekick.”

“Model? _Moi_?” Nicole’s dimples were on full display, despite the bruises.

_Oh no, why did I say that._

“Yep,” _great, I just created a monster. Better take her down a peg before she starts posing_ , “just can’t understand how your Victoria Secret’s runway ass was ever in the army in the first place.”

Nicole’s dimpled smile dropped, “I was a bit more muscular when I was in.”

“I’m sorry, _more_ muscular?”

“Oh, uh…” Nicole yanked out her phone and jumped on Facebook.

“Here.”

Nicole had pulled up a series of old pictures and passed the phone to Wynonna. The first was of a much younger, and shirtless Nicole in what appeared to be a military barracks kitchen.

“Uhh,” god she was buff, “you wanna explain this?” Wynonna gave Nicole a once over, “And why you look like the nerds I used to beat up in high school now.”

Nicole snorted, “You never beat anybody.”

True, but that didn’t stop Wynonna from taking offence, “And you know this how?”

“I know what bullies look like Earp, I was the gay kid.”

“You were out? In the nineties?” What?

Nicole shifted uncomfortably and her expression changed; was that sorrow? It looked like it.

“That was uh, that was an accident…”

“Oh,” _this sounds like something I don’t wanna get into. Change the subject Earp_. Change it to what though… _Oh right, the picture_.

“So you uh- look… drunk?”

Nicole glanced down at the picture. _Probs coz I was._ “I was half naked in somebody’s kitchen so I must have been.”

Moving on to the next picture, “Where the fuck are your clothes and why are you wearing a Santa hat?”

Nicole laughed into her beer, “I assume it was Christmas,” she looked at the picture, saw the decorations, “no that was Canada day…”

“Santa hat, Haught, Santa hat.”

Whose backyard was that? Ugly blue shed, inflatable pool, Reardon in the background dry humping a plastic flamingo… _What the hell was she on?_

 “That was the Colonel’s house…” she mumbled.

“And?”

Nicole just shrugged. It was Petawawa, there was nothing fun to do in Petawawa except get drunk and do dumb shit.

Wynonna must have flipped through a dozen photos of Nicole, drunk and shirtless before landing on one of her at a party. Hair down, tight black v-neck, visible dog tags, and even tighter jeans. And wearing the smuggest grin while accompanied by four stupidly attractive women; two on each arm.

“You wanna explain this, _Haughtstuff_?”

“Oh,” that was a night she would never forget, “we went with Cabral to crash his little sister’s sorority party.”

“Really? And who are these lovely ladies?”

“Um, this is Willow, Jie, Corissa,” her finger hovered over a gorgeous blond with piercing blue eyes, “and Abby.”

Wynonna’s mouth fell open, “That’s Abby?” _Holy shit she’s hot._

Wynonna had to look at the picture again. Abby had her arms possessively wrapped around Nicole’s waist; her face saying _mine, she’s mine_.

“When was this?”

“Hmmm,” she had to think a minute, “two thousand two, yeah that’s Abby’s sorority’s graduation party. That was the night Paola set the kitchen on fire.”

Wynonna choked on her drink, gasping she asked, “What? Why?”

Nicole threw her arms up, “She was drunk and something about a microwave.”

“What is it with you fuckers and being drunk all the time?” _And people call me an alcoholic._

“I don’t know Earp, war sucks and drinkin’ makes ya forget about it.”

“No it does not!”

“Yeah huh.”

“No it doe–”

“Shhhh!”

“But–”

“Let me drink my problems away in peace Earp Jesus.”

Wynonna raised her hands in surrender, “At least you know you have a problem, and I’ll have a buddy for AA once Waverly gets wind of this.”

The women were silent for a moment, then Nicole started to laugh, Wynonna joined her; their laughter echoed in the empty bar.

Doc keen on just drinking and playing pool by himself couldn’t help but get curious, “Care to let me in on the joke?”

Wynonna gripped Nicole’s arm, “No but for real, when we get Dolls and fix Waves we gotta hide this shit or it’s gonna be some dingy church basement in south Calgary for us.”

Nicole eyed Doc, “If they ever catch us he’s goin’ down too.”

Wynonna grinned, “You, me, and Haughtpants in AA, together.”

Confused, Doc asked, “What is this AA you speak of?”

Before Wynonna could answer him, Nicole spoke, “AA is where _concerned_ ,” she actually used air quotes, “friends and family send frequently intoxicated loved ones to try and make them stop drinking.” Aghast, Doc muttered _my lord_ under his breath, she continued, “There’s lots of praying, emotions, and inspirational speeches. And ya get chips to represent how far you’ve come along in your sobriety.”

“And it never works…” Added Wynonna.

“And it never works…” Nicole repeated.

Doc was silent for a moment then quietly said, “I would like to go home now.”

Nicole left the keys on the bar and the trio left just as off duty deputies started pouring in.

 

They arrived home that night in one piece, a miracle considering Nicole was more than tipsy.

“I was thinking tomorrow, Officer Miller and I might go lookin’ for Waverly, you know flash a picture at shopkeepers and such in other towns. Maybe she’s holed up somewhere in a hotel.” Doc said, lighting up a cigarette he pilfered from Nicole.

“I thought we were gonna keep this on the down-low? It’s not just her that could get wind of it, Lucado’s got to have her feelers out.” Wynonna said, walking backwards up the porch steps.

“We reported her missing then. Lucado won’t know the real reason.” Nicole replied, side-eyeing Doc, who was enjoying his stolen cigarette.

“I don’t know about this –bumps the door– ow, I left your lighter in the car go get it.” Wynonna turned to unlock the door.

Half way up the stairs Nicole sighed, “’Course you did why do you h- –screams– hi Waverly!”

Doc and Wynonna turned to find Waverly at the trunk of Nicole’s car. Way closer to the house than the previous night.

“Hey Waves,” Wynonna called out, “You got closer…” Oh god.

She looked different, more mature even. Her hair was shorter, falling just to her shoulders. Her lips were painted a glossy red, her eyes were coated in a smoky eyeshadow. She sported a long, elegant black coat with black leather boots.

Nicole shuffled towards her without thinking. She just, she just looked so beautiful Nicole forgot for a moment that she was the enemy. Doc and Wynonna had already started down the stairs to grab Nicole before Waverly did.

They were a little too late.

Waverly met her at the front of the car. The two stood inches apart, “Hi.” Nicole whispered.

Waverly responded by reaching out to touch her face. Her hand bounced off the blue barrier, just as Peacemaker started to glow the same color.

For a moment, she looked hurt. When she reached out again, there was a little more force in the gesture. But it only yielded the same result.

Without warning, she slammed both fists into it. The shockwave sent Nicole flying backwards into Doc. Both landed on the ground in a heap.

Growling now, she took out what appeared to be a set of keys, and then to Nicole’s horror; proceeded to run a key along her car’s shiny grey doors.

“Not my car!” Nicole shouted as Doc and Wynonna pinned her to the ground.

Waverly disappeared with a wink and Nicole surged to her feet to inspect the damage.

“Ok now she’s just fucking with us.” Wynonna said as she wiped snow from her pants, “You ok Haughtpants?”

Nicole shook her head as she rushed to her car, “What did I do to her?”

“At this point, I think it’s just you existing that’s pissing it off.” Answered Doc, unhelpful as ever.

“Thanks Doc.” She said dejectedly.

He tipped his hat and began looking for the cigarette that was knocked out of his mouth.

“And to think I quit smoking once.” Wynonna muttered as she headed back up the stairs.

 

As they settled for the night Nicole succumbed to the call of prescription meds and popped a couple to help her sleep.

“Really, you’re gonna do that?” Wynonna asked.

“If she gets in the house just let her kill me, put me out of my damn misery.” Nicole grumbled as she fixed her pillows.

“Alright, this is a verbal contract, no takebacks.” And sauntered out of the living room.

 

Perched alone on top of a pathetic excuse of a house, Nicole watched through the scope of the rifle she’d stolen off a dead Taliban fighter as several more dragged away a screaming Reardon. She had her finger on the trigger, but hesitated.

She felt a presence next to her.

Waverly.

“Go on do it,” the echoing voice told her, “do it or get court martialed for cowardice.”

Nicole glared and growled, “You already know how this ends.”

With Reardon in her crosshairs, she pulled the trigger.

 

Wynonna sat across from Waverly in the BBD office, just watching her as she translated some Latin mumbo jumbo.

“She’s lying to you.” Waverly said without looking up.

“Who Nicole? Nah, she fessed up.”

“Not carrot top,” her voice low, ghostly now, “who is sitting front of you, you dumb cunt?”

Offended yet too frightened to argue, Wynonna only asked, “How?”

“You’ll find out soon enough I suppose…”

It went back to translating, and Wynonna just sat, and stared, and asked to herself, _how?_

Six am arrived too quickly for the Homestead’s weary occupants. Well, for Doc Wynonna, and Nicole anyway. Gus was already up, dressed, and fed before Nicole and Wynonna could stumble to the coffee pot.

The four of them sat at the kitchen table

“Edna has an appointment today, I’m taking her so her nephew doesn’t have to come up from Canmore.”

Nicole sighed, “That’s the cardiologist isn’t it?”

Gus nodded, “Were you suppose to take her?”

“Yeah, but I picked up Phil’s shift. Had to call Peter.”

“Did you adopt a grandma Haughtpants?” Wynonna asked, smirking into her mug.

“Nah, I got adopted.”

“I thought you had a family Officer.”

“I do, it’s an expression.” Nicole said quickly.

“I gotta get goin’, thing’s at nine.” Gus hurried out of the kitchen.

Nicole stood abruptly, “Wait! How close did you park to the house?”

 

Nicole and Doc checked every square inch of the cars.

“I don’t think she got into bomb making overnight.” Wynonna grumbled, mostly to herself but still loud enough for Nicole to hear.

“Waverly is very social, she could have made a few friends.” Nicole’s patronizing tone had Wynonna making a few very rude gestures behind her back.

“I think,” Doc paused to still Wynonna’s hands, “that we should start bringing some of the occult items home with us, seeing as we don’t know the true identity of the creature, the books we cannot read may hold that answer. It might try to steal them from us.”

Nicole snapped her fingers, “Great idea, I didn’t think of that.”

They split up with Gus heading to Edna’s and the others to the station.

 

Nicole ended up spending most of the day buried in paperwork for the two previous days’ incidents. According to Nedley, it was unavoidable. That was just bullshit. Doc and Tom left to look for Waverly, which left Wynonna, later joined by Gus and Edna, to catalogue all of Mattie’s occult stuff and look through security footage; Nicole’s idea.

“Some people have been sayin’ that they’ve seen a short woman with brown hair creepin’ around old factories. Couldn’t hurt.”

“It’s not gonna be that dumb.” Wynonna had argued, but the case had already been rested as Frank brought in a box of disks.

Nine mind numbing hours would pass before Wynonna declared that all of the so called “Waverly sightings” were bullshit, and that Mattie owned way too many moose skulls.

“Alcohol!” she shouted, grabbing her jacket.

“What abou–”

“Alcohol!” Wynonna loudly reiterated.

Nicole found herself at Shorty’s a mere fifteen minutes later.

“I was just doin’–”

“I didn’t want to drink alone.” Wynonna interrupted, placing a huge bottle of Captain Morgan and a glass in front of her.

“Fine… I didn’t get through any of those break-in reports though.” She said, pouring rum.

“I don’t think Nedley is going to give a rat’s furry little ass.”

“He seemed awfully pissed when you were draggin’ me out the station shoutin’ ‘bout alcohol.”

“I’m gonna hazard a guess and say that’s coz I was shouting _‘bout alcohol_.” Wynonna replied, mimicking Nicole’s accent.

Nicole hmphed and drank.

Wynonna chuckled and took a long swig of whatever whiskey she swiped off the shelf.

It was Jim Beam.

Yuck.

 

A couple of hours had past. Wynonna had given up Jim and switched to Johnny. Nicole still had the Captain by her side. Neither said a word to each other until Nicole’s phone chirped and she read the message, “He’s at a black site on Wilson Lake up north.”

“He’s at the North Pole? For real?” Wynonna couldn’t help but be skeptical. Lucado seemed more like a lock your enemies up in a Saudi prison than send them to see Santa type.

“Yeah,” Nicole pocketed her phone, “he’s in solitary coz she’s mad at him.” She’d abandoned using the glass long before and drank straight from the bottle of Captain. Hopefully there was E&J somewhere in this bar.

“How does Paola’s contact know this is true? Who’s to say Lucado doesn’t have a mole in CSIS?”

Nicole took another swig, still not comprehending why she was drinking rum, “Normally I’d disagree but with this bitch I just don’t know.”

They heard the doors and turned as Molineux strode in with Deveraux and Linda behind him.

“You wanna go to Wilson Lake?”

“Is that where our American friend is?”

“Yep.”

“Well Frank, you want go to Wilson Lake?”

“I’d have to ask the missus…”

Leon raised an eyebrow as Frank glanced abashedly around the room.

“Does Kim set a curfew for ya too Frank?” Wynonna jested, at least it sounded like it to them. She however was genuinely curious if Kim still controlled every aspect of his life like she remembered from high school.

His eyes narrowed but made no attempt at a retort. Instead he took a seat at the other side of the bar and mean mugged her.

“Can’t believe we have to fight Santa Claus to rescue a black guy.” Leon said as he sat next to Frank.

“Which part?” Asked Nicole.

“The black guy part clearly.” Wynonna mumbled into her whiskey causing Nicole to spray rum all over the counter.

“Fuck you Earp!” Leon shouted, throwing a coaster at her. She dodged gracefully while Nicole attempted to mop up her mess with someone’s discarded t-shirt.

“Fucking white people.” Linda muttered quietly as poured herself a glass red wine from a bottle of cheap merlot she swiped from the shelf.

 

By ten that night the bar was a lively mix of off duty and on duty cops. Gus had arrived after bringing Edna home and dropping all the books off at the homestead. Doc and Tom had given her an escort after a fruitless lowkey search for Waverly.

Taking up her position behind the bar, she served bleary eyed, tired men and chased away uniformed deputies as they snuck behind the bar. She made it a point however, to ignore the two loudmouth chuckleheads behind her.

Gus made it to eleven fifteen before she finally caved.

“Guuussss! Talk to usssss!” Nicole shouted as she swayed drunkenly on her stool.

“Oh god what Nic? You heard any news about Mr. Dolls?”

Nicole nodded and nearly fell, “We hav’ t’ go t’ the North Pole an’ save Dolls from Santa Claus coz Lucado stole ‘em and now he’s an elf.”

Wynonna downed the last of her whiskey and nodded vigorously adding, “But he can’t be ‘n elf they’re like slaves he’s black–”

Nicole gasped loudly and shoved Wynonna, “Yer right, he’s a black man that’s wrong he can’t be a slave no more oh no!”

Their antics had Gus just about losing her mind, so she stepped out from behind the bar and grabbed the women by their collars, dragging them to the door, “Johnathan Henry Holliday you help me get these two imbeciles home right now!”

“The hell you get Johnathan from?” He demanded as he propped up Nicole, who was sinking to her knees in a fit of giggles.

Wynonna decided she wanted to be fighty and started shoving Gus, “You can’t take me nowhere! Won’t let you!”

“Oh shut yer mouth!” Gus grabbed Wynonna’s arm, spun her around, and pinned it place.

Doc had given up trying to get Nicole to walk and just tossed her over his shoulder, “Didn’t expect those moves from you.”

She scowled, “I’ve been this damn bar’s only bouncer for almost thirty damn years! I know a thing or two about handlin’ drunk fools.”

Doc could do nothing but stare in confused admiration.

 

At six-thirty am the following morning, shrill beeping coming from somewhere in the house startled Nicole awake. She fell from the couch in a tangled heap of blankets. After successfully untangling herself she stood, staring blankly around the living room, her mind foggy from the previous night’s drinking.

Gus walked in, dressed in flannel pajamas and a thick blue robe. She gave Nicole an unimpressed once over, “Mornin’ chicken legs.” And continued on her way.

Nicole looked down, her bare, pale, scarred legs were on display for the whole house to see. _Who took my pants?_ She wondered as she wrapped a blanket around her waist.

Wynonna came barreling into the living room in what could barely pass as underwear and shoved a steaming mug of coffee at her, “Here ya go! Black with a bunch of sugar cuz milk can kill ya.” And scurried out of the living room nearly as fast as she came in.

The lacy blue underwear she had on didn’t fully cover her ass, so Nicole was treated to a pleasant view of it. She didn’t notice Doc sidle up beside her and join in her voyeuristic gazing.

“You are very pale.” He said to her after Wynonna disappeared around the corner.

She jumped, nearly spilling her coffee. Meeting his eyes, she followed his gaze down, to her bare ass legs. Groaning, she scooped up the blanket and rewrapped it while Doc let out a raspy chuckle. He winked and sauntered off.

 

High maintenance. That wasn’t a word Doc had heard of during his pre-well days. In fact, the first time he had heard it was while he was watching the Earp sisters get ready for work. _High maintenance_ , something Wynonna had called Waverly while the two fought over the bathroom mirror.

Now he watched as three grown women argued over space, lipstick, and hair gel. he would have never pegged any of them as the type to fight over such girlish things, but here he was, standing outside the bathroom door with a toothbrush in hand patiently waiting for his turn.

“Dude, why do you even bother your face is like purple?” Wynonna asked while Nicole dabbed concealer on her face.

“That is exactly why I’m doing it!” Nicole replied indignantly.

Wynonna watched as the other woman furiously blended in concealer around her swollen eye. Unsatisfied with the shit job Nicole was doing, Wynonna reached out and stilled her hand, “Let me.” Surprisingly, Nicole barely protested, offering up the little sponge instead.

Wynonna gently cupped Nicole’s face as she rubbed the sponge under her eye. “Your contouring sucks by the way.”

Nicole dipped her head in mild embarrassment, “I’ve always left that up to other women.”

“Waverly’s gonna love you then, put your head up.”

“I have been waiting here forever ladies, and I would like to freshen up.”

“Go use the kitchen.”

“She told me not to!” He whined, pointing dramatically to Gus with his toothbrush.

Nicole looked to Gus, “Why? I wash my hair in the sink.”

“That’s coz you have no manners.” Gus shot back as she checked her mascara before brushing past Doc.

“I so have manners!” Nicole called after her.

“Can I brush my fuckin’ teeth now?”

“Have at it dude.”

Outside bore no signs of any late-night visits from Waverly. Wynonna was almost disappointed. Nicole and Doc inspected the vehicles for tampering, exchanging uneasy glances as they circled each car.

“She can’t get this close to the house, they’re fine.”

“Testy this morning are we?” Nicole said mildly, brushing dirt and snow from her pants.

“I just wanna know why we have to act like the IRA is after us every damn morning?”

“Well let’s see,” she unlocked her Corolla, “the first night Doc saw her,” she checked under the driver’s seat, “she couldn’t get down the driveway,” she checked the passenger’s seat, “the next night she keys my car,” she climbed in and started it, “she didn’t come last night, but who knows? Tonight we could come back and find her in the living room doin’ her fuckin’ nails!”

“Point made or whatever…” Wynonna replied lamely, throwing her hands up in defeat.

“Yeah point made.”

Nicole slammed the door shut. _Bitchy ginger douche_ , Wynonna thought bitterly, rounding the front of the car.

None of them said a single word to each other the entire ride.

 

Splitting up at the station, Doc took surveillance feeds from the previous night, while Nicole and Wynonna continued the research.

It was a bitch to find, but Nicole managed to track down a reliable dictionary on Google. Going through chapter titles and descriptions now, she hoped to cut though all the extraneous info.

_Jinn, Rostam, Peri, Simorgh, ghouls, daeva… Azi Dahaka. Serpant? No it has eyes, damn. There’s gotta be a gooey penis snake vagina mouth monster in this book._

She had almost given up hope until she hit a chapter on “the darkness”, or something like that. Remembering the creature had said it came from the darkness she thought it couldn’t be too much of a stretch. Flipping to the page, she nearly threw the book.

It was in cuneiform, old Persian cuneiform. The rest of the book was in Tajiki; this particular chapter was just enhanced photographs of stone tablets.

She tore a piece of paper off her note pad and stuck it in, pushing the book away.

At the white board, Wynonna was attempting to decline the word engloutir, and failing miserably. Her French was rustier than she initially thought. The book she had picked up had an entire section devoted to wyrms. Vagina mouth was wormy looking. Couldn’t hurt.

She glanced over to the table. Nicole was just glaring at a book, “Uh oh, no bueno?”

“Ha!, worse,” she flung the pen in her hand, “found something that could be of interest… but it’s in cuneiform.”

Wynonna suppressed a laugh, “That’s sucky, help me with this word,” she tapped the white board, “what’s the perfect tense?”

“A englouti.”

“Merci.” _Alright, the beast has engulfed…_

Nicole looked to Doc, who seemed engrossed in whatever was on the footage, “You wanna switch?”

His brow knit in confusion, “Why? This is very interesting.”

“You watchin’ porn there grandpa?”

When Doc’s eyes went wide, Nicole snatched the laptop from him to find that Doc was watching a man getting a blow job, from another man, behind the abandoned car wash.

She groaned, “It’s just dudes.” And slid it back to him.

Wynonna stopped writing mid-sentence, it took Nicole a moment, but her words finally registered.

“And I thought I was into weird shit.” Wynonna said, her face partially concealed by the book.

“I said it was interesting, I did not say I was _into_ it. Officer you understand of course?”

Nicole didn’t answer him, brow furrowed and lips pursed, she sat stock still; eyes focused on a little pile of paper clips and determined to erase all the mental images of Doc with dudes that flooded her mind.

“Nice dude, you broke the lesbian.”

Doc muttered something and scooped up the laptop, scurrying to the back of the office to sit at Waverly’s desk.

Nicole’s phone rang, breaking the awkward tension. It was Abby. She hesitated, but answered anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hi mama!” It was Nicholas.

Relieved, Nicole relaxed, “Hey buddy, did you have fun at grandma and grandpa’s?”

“Yeah!” Abby’s parents had missed Hanukkah to take a two-week cruise to the islands so they were making it up to their grandkids over Christmas break, “I got Fallout 4!”

“Well I better get to play,” the Wilsons always spoiled their grandchildren, “what’s mom doing?”

“Ummm,” she could hear him get up and race to wherever Abby was, “doin’ her hair.”

On the other end Nicole could hear her, “Is that mama?”

“Yep.”

“Hi Nic.”

“Mommy says hi.”

Unenthusiastically Nicole replied, “Hi.”

“She says _hi_.” He had to say it the same way.

She could hear Abby laughing, she missed that laugh.

“Can mama come play Fallout with me?”

_No_ , Nicole though.

“We’ll see, will she be getting a weekend off anytime soon?”

_With Waverly like this and Dolls arrested… no._

She did have the second off though.

“Um, how about the second?”

“The second!” He shouted it and she could hear him jumping.

“Alright, the second it is.”

“Yay! I won’t play it till then!”

“Liar you’ll have half the game done by then.”

“Nuh-uh I won’t I promise.”

“Sure.”

“Nicholas let your mother get to work and get your shoes on, we’re going to be late.”

“Where you guys going?”

“The Sesermans’.”

“Oh, call me later.”

“Yeah I love you.”

“Love you too buddy.”

He hung up without delay. She clutched the phone to her chest for second, then put it away.

“When’s the last time you saw him?” Wynonna asked.

“The day after his birthday. She didn’t want me there, didn’t want the other parents to talk.”

Doc and Wynonna exchanged sympathetic looks. The reasons behind the divorce were still a mystery to them. When Nicole didn’t say anything else, Wynonna and Doc went back to work.

 

Wynonna’s phone rang, interrupting the quiet that had fallen over the room. Waverly’s picture appeared on the screen and Wynonna answered it immediately.

“Waverly?” Doc and Nicole instantly abandoned their tasks, rushing to Wynonna’s side.

“Wynonna? Wynonna help!” She sounded terrified.

“Baby girl where are you?” Her heart was pounding right out of her chest. Nicole stepped in front her, they locked eyes. The deputy’s intense gaze was the only thing keeping her from bolting out of the room.

“I dunno I–” There was a pause and Wynonna could hear the wind whipping through the speaker, “I think I’m at an old saw mill. How did I get here!” She started crying and Wynonna’s heart broke in a million pieces. Nicole cautiously grabbed Wynonna’s arm, who in turn death gripped hers; causing her to grimace with pain.

“The one on Chiniki Lake Road? It’s the closest.” Nicole asked through gritted teeth.

“Can you see a street sign baby girl?”

“Umm, yeah… Chi-ni-ki?” Wynonna nodded to Nicole who parroted the gesture.

“We’re coming to get you hold on!”

“Hurry!” The line went dead. Wynonna let go of Nicole and attempted to leave.

Nicole however refused to release the other woman, “This is a trap.”

“Let go of me, it’s not.”

She jerked her arm but Nicole persisted stating firmly, “It’s a trap.”

“I don’t care piss off Haught.” Nicole released her arm only to grab her by the shoulders.

“Doc what do you think?” Nicole asked him, never taking her eyes of Wynonna’s.

“I think you’re right Officer, we shouldn’t be running in to this without a plan. I would assume by now that the creature will have some sort of allies… maybe revenants.” He raised his voice at the end hoping to bring some sense to Wynonna.

“I don’t care!” She shouted at him shoving Nicole away, “She’s all I have left!”

Nicole raced after her grabbing her arm, spinning her around, “Then you’re not going alone!”

Wynonna yanked her arm out of Nicole’s grasp, “Then I’ll be in the parking lot.”

She ran out of the office leaving Nicole and Doc, “This not going to end well.” He stated as he grabbed his hat from the rack.

She laughed mirthlessly, “No it is not.” She shot off a quick text to Tom. His response was scathing, she promised to keep him posted, but he was adamant in being there for back up.

 

They piled into Nicole’s cruiser with Wynonna riding shotgun and Doc bitching about being trapped with no door handles.

“I didn’t make the damn thing Doc don’t be pissy at me.” Nicole snapped, starting the engine.

“I can be _pissy_ at whomever I want, this is not practical.”

“This was designed for criminals! Put your fuckin’ seatbelt on.” She peeled out of the parking lot before he even got the chance, jostling him around the back.

They drove in silence down the 133x until they got to the overpass; there was no traffic on the AB-1. Flurries had started up again, coating the fence and guardrails. A good half a meter of snow covered the surrounding hills. It was always so eerily deserted in this part of Alberta, Wynonna could never figure out how the Chief Chiniki could stay open.

“You ever eat in there?” Nicole asked, jerking her head towards the restaurant as they drove past.

“Nah, looks to gimmicky.”

“Didn’t know you were a hipster Earp.” She replied with a disapproving look.

Wynonna snorted and gave Nicole a light punch to the shoulder. Puzzled Doc asked, “The hell’s a hipster.”

“Someone who listens to bands you've never heard of, wears ironic tee-shirts, and thinks they’re better than you.”

“Someone’s been on Urban Dictionary.” Wynonna teased.

“Where’s the lie though?”

The trio fell silent again. Wynonna watched Nicole as she drove. Her jaw was clenched, face pensive. She gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands. Without thinking, Wynonna reached over and gently laid a hand on Nicole’s thigh; who responded by covering Wynonna’s with her own.

Doc watched the women sure that they were completely unaware of their actions. He was tempted to put his hand over Nicole’s and ruin the moment. Wynonna spoke however, interrupting the stillness that had settled in the car.

“You ok?” The question barely above a whisper.

Nicole shook her head, “This is wrong Earp…” She took her hand away, putting it back on the wheel; Wynonna let her hand linger for a few moments more before pulling it back.

“Waverly’s still in there somewhere… I know it. She could have gotten control.”

“Or,” Doc countered, “this demon taking advantage of your emotions, pretending to be Waverly.”

Wynonna shrunk down in her seat, “I like my theory better.”

Quietly, Nicole replied, “We all do.”

Patterson and Sons saw mill stood abandoned on the corner of one of those little off shoot roads by Chiniki Lake. Pulling into the parking lot, Nicole cut the engine and glanced around property. The massive building had been abandoned for nearly 40 years and looked it to. Busted windows, graffitied walls, the roof was rotting and half caved in. Old, rusted equipment was scattered around the parking lot.

“I don’t see Waverly.” Nicole mumbled, resting her chin on the wheel.

“She’s probs inside that’s why.” Wynonna was out of the car in a flash, leaving Nicole to let Doc out of the back.

“She either ain’t here, or here with the Devil’s army.”

Nicole snorted and replied, “Well according to my mother, I have an intimate relationship with him so maybe we could work something out.”

Doc barked out a laugh and gave her small shove.

“The hell you idiots laughing about?” Wynonna shouted as she climbed onto a large crate to get a look inside.

“Oh Officer Haught was just tellin’ me how her an’ the Devil are real close.” Nicole struggled to suppress a laugh as she reached back in the cruiser for her shotgun. Her phone beeped, it was Tom telling her he was going to be held up for a while. _Shit, could have used the back up._

“Oh good,” Wynonna was off the crate and tugging on the large metal doors, they opened easily, “she can go first then!”

“Those weren’t locked?” Doc asked suspiciously.

“No… ain’t nobody been here in years though.” She poked her head in, the little entry way gave way to a long corridor. She couldn’t see the rest but she could make doors along the hallway.

“This land belongs to the Chiniki now, I’m sure they’ve been in it loads of times.” Nicole shouldered the door open and cautiously made her way in.

“That don’t make me feel any better.” Wary now, he unholstered his gun and followed her in.

Wynonna charged in with Peacemaker out barreling past Nicole, “Wav–” But Nicole clamped a hand over her mouth and pulled her close.

“Are you crazy?” It was barely above a whisper, “What do you hear?” She unclamped her hand but held tight.

“Nothing?” _Duh?_

“Exactly, something’s wrong.” She let go of Wynonna and pushed her back. Carefully, Nicole opened the door on their right. Nobody home she thought. “You get that one.” She gestured to the door beside Doc.

The three of them painstakingly swept each room until they hit the end of the hall which took a sharp left turn in to the main floor of the mill. Giant saws still hung in the air, conveyor belts were littered with junk, but what surprised Nicole the most was the sheer number of logs still stacked at the loading dock. Why didn’t anyone take them?

They ventured further into the mill, the air was musty, with a faint scent of rotting wood. Light filtered in through the gaping holes in the ceiling. There was no one here.

“Alright, she’s not here let’s–”

“Wynonna Earp! What a surprise!” The voice interrupted Nicole. It was loud, masculine, but not deep.

They followed it to the catwalks suspended high above the machinery. Several men stood looking down but Wynonna recognized the face of the man in the center. He looked like Bobo. _Joseph? No…_

“Joseph Svane?” She shouted as Doc and Nicole exchanged puzzled looks.

“You know my name?” His smile was so bright and genuine her it turned her stomach. “I’m so happy you have no idea!”

She felt a hand on her shoulder and a gentle tug, “We need to leave now.” Nicole whispered in her ear. Wynonna nodded and the three began to back out of the room slowly.

All seven pairs of eyes on the catwalk glowed red and the men bared their teeth in frightening smiles.

“Get them!” Jojo shouted.

The trio scrambled to the hall but Waverly and a group of revenants materialized, blocking their path. In a panic, Nicole whipped her head around searching for an exit. Back towards the loading dock was a fire exit.

“Go that way!” She yelled pointing to the busted red exit sign. Before they rushed off Nicole forced her car keys into Doc’s hand.

“Take these,” he looked at her like she had ten heads and tried to speak but she stopped him, “just get her to the car, I’ll be the distraction. Don’t wait too long.” He nodded, face grim.

They split up with him dragging Wynonna to the exit. She barely noticed, too busy firing at the demons surrounding them, until Nicole was no longer in her field of vision.

“Where’s Nicole?” She demanded as they dove behind a resaw to evade the spray of bullets from Corey’s Uzi. Jojo’s maniacal laughter, somehow louder than all the shooting, rang in her ears.

“Gonna meet us on the other side!” Two revenants leaped over a conveyor belt, closing in on them. Wynonna hit one dropping him in to a fiery hole, the other was too fast; knocking Doc into a massive head saw.

“Oh no you don’t you big dick!” Wynonna leapt on to the demon’s back wrestling him off Doc. Several more revenants appeared filling the space between the saws. Doc popped up letting off wild shots to send the demons scattering, and dragged Wynonna away from the one on the ground.

“I had him wha–” Bullets hitting logs interrupted her however, with bits of wood raining down on them like confetti. “Never mind, shit!”

They sprinted to the exit, their pursuers closing in. As they reached the fire door, they were met with another barrage of gun fire. Doc rammed the door open shoving Wynonna outside, before he could leave he felt a sudden, stinging pain in his arm. He’d been hit. Biting back the urge to swear, he gritted his teeth and dashed out the door.

As Doc pulled Wynonna away, Nicole turned to face the attackers blocking the hall, firing off a couple of rounds from her shotgun, she sent all but Waverly scattering. Ducking behind a conveyor belt she cursed the gun’s limited capacity, and wondered how she was going to get the creature to move its spot.

Her reprieve was short lived. A fat, mullet sporting revenant charged her position, while grinning wildly. Caught off guard, he tackled her sending them both into decrepit old crates. His weight, plus the pain in her back and side had her seeing stars. He reared back a fist, she couldn’t reach her side arm but grabbed a piece of wood and smashed it over his head.

He rolled off her and she hustled to her gun, shooting him before he had the chance to recover. She tried to radio for assistance, but all’s she got was static. _The creature…_

Speaking of it, Waverly was nowhere to be seen from her position by a large chipper. With more revenants closing in, she realized she was going to have to go out a window. If only she could get to one.

“Oh fuck it!” She sprinted through a hail of gun fire to a set of dirty, broken windows by the loading dock. She shot out one and used the gun to clear away the jagged pieces.

With one leg out of the window, Nicole though she was home free. She was wrong. The bullet ripped through her side. She lost her footing and went crashing to the floor. Holding a hand to her side to slow the bleeding she noticed blood on the floor. It was a through and through.

_Shit, shit…_ The pain was unbearable, but Nicole managed to drag herself to a saw bench and prop herself up.

“Nicooole?” That voice, that taunting voice.

Waverly was walking towards her, rifle tossed over her shoulder, with the biggest smile plastered on her face. The shotgun still had a shell left, so she went for it, but it was yanked right out of her hand. She went for her side arm, that too was violent torn from her holster with just a flick of a wrist.

Reaching for her Taser, it shorted in its holster shocking her.

With Waverly continuing her advance, weak and dizzy from blood loss, Nicole began crawling to the window in a last-ditch attempt to escape. She didn’t notice the revenants surrounding her position, until a set of legs entered her peripheral vision.

Her whole body shook but she refused to look up. She grabbed the window sill but a grimy hand pulled it off, another grabbed her jacket collar, shoving her forcefully to the ground.

On her back, she came face to face with her attacker. It was the fat one she had shot mere minutes before. He smiled at her, his teeth yellow and rotted. Waverly stood by her feet, both said nothing.

Nicole’s heart was pounding so rapidly and she could barely breathe, but she wasn’t going to let them see her fear. So she put on the most defiant face she could muster and said to Waverly through gritted teeth, “Nice shot…” the pain made it difficult to string the words together, “ _babe_.”

“Well you know me,” it replied in Waverly’s cheerful voice, “I _aim_ to please.” It laughed at its own joke.

Jojo had joined the group that had formed, pushing past revenants to join the trio. “So close huh Deputy?” His disappointment sounded genuine.

This was it, Nicole thought. She was going to die here. Her own damn girlfriend was going to kill her and there was nothing she could do about it.

But she was wrong, so, so wrong. With a nod from Jojo, Corey delivered a short, swift kick to the side of her head. Blackness enveloped her and with no fight left, Nicole surrendered to it; wholeheartedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all gonna hate me next chapter. For so many reasons.  
> Just sayin'


	9. Chained to you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing is fine and Jojo wants everything on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the start of the chapter 6 saga. Let's see how long it takes me to finish this one.

His ribs hurt. Laying on his left side was a terrible idea.

Alone in a dark, cramped cell, Dolls had given up trying to escape hours ago. He didn’t think Lucado would actually go ahead with the bombing.

But he didn’t, couldn’t believe her when she demanded to know why that tiny hick town hadn’t been obliterated by the six hellfire missiles she’d sent so far. He didn’t know, no matter loud he screamed, he didn’t know.

 

There wasn’t a single person in the parking lot when Doc and Wynonna reached the cruiser. Doc wrenched open the driver’s door and shoved Wynonna in, climbing in after her.

They waited.

And waited.

And waited until the saw mill doors burst open spilling out wild eyed revenants and Doc knew it was time to go.

They were out of the parking lot in a flash. Wynonna screamed for him to stop, for Nicole, but he shook his head, “Too many of them!” he pulled the radio mic off the hook and threw it at her, “Call for Officer Miller!”

“Shit! Tom! Linda! Nedley? Somebody pick up!” She shouted into the mic as they barreled down Chiniki Lake Road.

“Earp? Earp?” Nedley’s voice crackled through the speaker.

“Oh god, we need back up! At the saw mill!”

“What? Why?”

“Revenants! At the saw mill! Hurry please!”

Tom and Linda heard the exchange while they were dealing with a four-car wreck on Reed St. _Revenants at the saw mill… Earp radioing in, Nic._ “Shit!” Tom shouted as he and Linda jumped into their cruiser, speeding off leaving four irate motorists stranded outside of Chip’s Deli.

 

It took Wynonna four tries to get the mic back on the hook, her hands were shaking so violently.

“We have to go back!” She shouted, peering over the passenger seat to see if they were followed.

“They’ll kill us!” Doc shouted right back.

“They’ll kill _her_.” Wynonna growled, shoving him. When he groaned, she noticed blood seeping into the fabric of his jacket, then the hole.

“You’ve been hit? Why didn’t you fucking say something?” She yanked open the glove compartment for a first aid kit. “Fuck it must be in the back, pull over!”

“I am not stopping this vehicle until we are at the station.” His eyes were fixed to the road.

“She _needs_ us!” Wynonna tried grabbing the steering wheel from him.

With his injured arm, Doc wrestled her away from it only to then grab her by the collar, pulling her close. Without taking his eyes off the road he said to her, “You are much too important to try and take on an army of ‘em,” pulling her closer until her nose bumped his face, “and I’m not about to let her sacrifice go to waste.”

He shoved her back and she hit the door with a whimper. He continued down the road until they hit the AB-1. There they saw a line of squad cars barreling down the road, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

Doc pulled to the side, and one the cruisers pulled up next to him. It was Tom and Linda.

Windows were rolled down, “What the hell happened where’s Nic?” Tom yelled.

“She was distraction.” Doc shouted back.

Tom’s face went hard.

“Shit!” That was from Linda.

Saying nothing, Tom rolled up his window and sped away to rejoin the other cars.

“I guess we can turn around now?” Wynonna asked, well more like begged.

Doc cocked his head, “We do have the cavalry now I suppose.”

Shifting out of park, Doc turned around to follow the deputies.

 

Wynonna and Doc arrived just after Tom and Linda. Guns drawn, the deputies had assembled at the front door, with Leon leading. He pulled open the door and held up a hand while he checked. At his signal the other officers followed him in.

They made it to the main floor without encountering a single revenant.

There were no revenants on the main floor either.

“Alright people spread out, find me something.” Nedley commanded and turned his attention to Wynonna and Doc.

“What happened?” He asked.

“Waverly called me,” she watched as creases in his forehead formed, “she was sobbing and wanted me to come get her…”

He took a huge breath and ran his fingers through his hair. He let it out as his hands dropped to his sides, he glanced around with a pained expression.

She couldn’t have felt more ashamed.

“Sir, I found something.” Frank said to Nedley. Their eyes met, and Wynonna could see the despair swirling in Frank’s.

_Oh no._

They followed him to a broken window across from a saw bench.

In a puddle of blood and broken glass sat a Stetson, walkie, and SIM card.

 

Nicole awoke to the gentle feeling of floating. She tried in vain to force her eyes open but her lids felt like lead shutters. Pain eventually made its presence known, slowly changing from dull to throbbing. She tried to speak, to moan even. But no sounds came out.

Her journey ended as she felt a cold, hard surface under her. Despite this, she slipped out of consciousness.

She awoke again to the feeling of a draft coming from somewhere.

No, it wasn’t a draft. Her shirt was gone. And so was her undershirt.

She forced her eyes open. The room was dimly lit by a couple of dingy ceiling lights. She heard the familiar crackling sounds of fire. She tried to get up but found she was tied down by chains around her wrists and ankles.

The rattling alerted Jojo and Corey. “You’re awake.” Jojo said cheerfully as he skirted the table.  “I guess we can start patching her up now.”

She craned her neck to try to get a glimpse of who was behind her, but all’s she could see was an orange glow dancing off the walls. Her breathing picked up. None of this sounded good.

Corey handed Jojo a piece of rebar. It had been sitting in the fire going in the oil drum in the corner and was a vivid orange. The instant she saw it Nicole instinctively tried to curl up, to protect her wounds. But the chains prevented that.

She cried out in frustration as she pulled and pulled. Corey just rolled his eyes. Jojo wagged scolding finger at him but winked.

Corey just shook his head and moved to the other side of the table, placing one hand on her head and the other on her stomach. He jerked his head and another man moved to the end of the table and held her legs.

Crying now, Nicole squirmed under their grip and yanked harder on the chains.

Corey ran his hand over her hair. Leaning in close he gave her a wet kiss on the nose, “You’re bleeding out dear, can’t have that now can we? Just met ya after all.” He took a fat, dirty thumb and wiped tears from Nicole’s face.

“Enough chatting hold her still.” Jojo ordered. Corey went back to pinning Nicole’s head.

“No, no, no, no, noooo!” She begged as Jojo positioned the orange tipped steel bar over the bullet wound on her stomach.

“I was never much of a sower, mama never taught me. Woman’s work. Not something a man needed to know.” Grinning he added, “Shame for you though.” And plunged the bar into the wound.


	10. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna starts to unravel while Jojo begins interrogating Nicole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of the chapter 6 saga

Wynonna stood in the BBD office alone. The deputies, Doc, and Nedley were currently running half-cocked through Ghost River County in a desperate attempt to find Nicole. It’d be fruitless, she already knew it. They would have gone underground by now. _Oh god, Nicole._

The bloody Stetson sat in an evidence bag on the table. It hadn’t been brought to the evidence room yet. She picked it up, hugging it to her chest.

Gus walked in. With her back to the door, Wynonna didn’t notice the other woman.

“Doc told me what happened.” Gus said softly.

Wynonna felt tears trickle down her face. She refused to turn around. Gus didn’t feel like waiting for her to either. Instead she crossed the room and embraced Wynonna; who just stood, face pressed against her shoulder, sobbing.

They stood like that until they heard the telltale sound of a walker against the floor.

Edna shuffled in stopping when she saw Wynonna’s tear streaked face, “Hi…” she said hesitantly, confusion showing on her face.

She saw the Stetson in Wynonna’s hands, “Whose hat is that?” she asked. When more tears fell, the walker scraped against the floor a little quicker. “Whose hat is that?” She asked again, with her voice cracking at the end.

When neither woman said anything, she snatched the evidence bag from Wynonna. “I–I know this hat. Why is there blood?”

Wynonna felt Gus’s eyes on her.

“Where is she? The… the hospital?” After a moment, “The morgue?”

“I’m sure she wishes she was in the morgue!” Wynonna blurted out angrily, surprising Gus.

“What do you mean?”

“Nicole is missing honey.” Gus said as she grabbed a rolling chair for Edna to sit.

The evidence bag fell to the floor, “Wha-what?” Tears welled in her eyes as she slowly backed out of the room, “No. Why?”

“Waverly–” Wynonna began but Edna already had her back turned.

“Don’t you tell me about that little witch!” She shouted.

Wynonna listened to the scraping fade. Why was it so hard to breathe?

She watched as Gus took off after the old woman, and was left alone again.

She didn’t want to be alone. Why were people leaving her alone?

She didn’t realize how heavily she was breathing until her face started to tingle. _Oh no, shit._

Was she hyperventilating? Sure as hell fucking felt like it.

Staggering her way out of the BBD office, Wynonna headed for Nicole’s desk. _I can’t be here, I can’t take it. Where are her fucking keys?_

Greta, the station’s elderly dispatcher, passed by the front desk on her way to the break room, shooting her the nastiest look. _You did this_. _She’s gonna die because of you._

Chancing them being in a draw, Wynonna rummaged through Nicole’s desk finding them in the bottom right one.

She was out of the station and in Nicole’s car in a flash.

 

Nicole screamed through the entire process. Once Jojo had removed the steal bar from the entry wound, he turned her to get the still bleeding wound on her back. She’d stopped fighting them. Which surprised him. But then again, he knew she wasn’t stupid. Why use up the little energy you have left, when you could save it for an escape attempt later.

He’d nip that problem in the bud. Can’t have his little gold mine of info running off on him. He jabbed the bar in the wound and listened as flesh sizzled and the owner of said flesh screamed.

“There all done. Wasn’t so bad now was it?” He said in a faux soothing voice as Nicole writhed in pain. Shoving the bar at Corey he left her side only to return with a leather tool roll-up.

Dropping it on her, he laughed as she grunted in pain. As he unfurled it, he watched with glee as her eyes widened. Grabbing her face, he pulled her head up, angling it so she could get a better view of its contents.

“No one is going to find you,” he squeezed harder, “so either you talk now and die quickly or I draw this out for as long as your heart can take it.”

Despite the pain, she steeled her expression and met his threat with silence.

“No?” He said between heavy breaths, “Fine.” He let go of her face and took his “tools”.       

“Well I guess you can just go ahead flip that switch then Corey.”

  _What switch?_ A generator kicked on behind her. Jojo clipped two cables to the chains around her wrists.

It was happening. All the bravado she had suddenly melted away. Sharp pangs of fear radiated through her body. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest.

“One more chance bitch.” Jojo growled, shoving his face into hers.  

Instead of answering, she whimpered. He scoffed, and tore himself away from the table.

“No Please!” She begged.

“Too late!” He shouted back.

The current coursed through the chains without the slightest warning.

        

Why the hell was she at Nicole’s apartment? The drive from the station did little to calm her nerves. Stepping in, she tossed her jacket on the couch and kicked the door shut behind her.

When the sound startled her, she sighed noisily, “Idiot.” _Jumpy fucking idiot._

There wasn’t a single trace of the fight with Waverly. Nicole made sure the place was spotless before she left. She stood where the coffee table used to be and laughed, remembering Nicole’s curse filled rant about how expensive the damn thing was.

“ _I paid three hundred fuckin’ bucks Earp! Now look at it! It’s toothpicks!_ ”

It was Cherrywood too.

She found herself in Nicole’s bedroom, having bypassed the rest of the apartment. It wasn’t any different from the last time she was in it.

She opened the bedroom closet door. Noticed almost immediately the large gun safe, “Got a god damn armory in here, damn.” There were boxes, labeled **Sgt. Haught** , sitting in the other corner collecting quite a considerable amount of dust. She probably hadn’t touched them since she moved in. Spotting a green camo BDU jacket, Wynonna pulled it off the hanger. It had an overpowering scent of old sweat and gunpowder, and none of the vanilla/fruity combo she was used to from the woman now.

She pulled it on and it fit her like a damn dress. But she zipped it up anyway and pulled out one of the labeled boxes. After wiping off the dust, she ripped the tape sealing it and settled on the floor against the bed.

The floor creaked, startling her. She looked up to see Nedley. He looked… he looked weary. Maybe disheartened? Discontented? Or just plain sad, she didn’t know, but what did he expect? It’s not like they were going to find her immediately. Or at all.  

“I knew I’d find you here.”

She tried not to show her irritation, but couldn’t prevent the scowl that formed, “I honestly thought this would be the last place anyone would look.” If he noticed it, he didn’t say anything.

“You know she boxed up all that crap the day she got her discharge papers.”

“Explains the dust.” She wiped more dust off its sides, “How many years ago was that?”

“About five”

“Hmm.”

“Tell me what really happened Earp.”

Wynonna let out a humorless laugh, “She refused to let me go alone, her and Doc.” She fiddled with the box’s flaps. “ _Too dangerous, probably a trap.”_ She said, mimicking Nicole’s twangy accent.

“She’s more of a chauvinist than I am,” he chuckled, then went quiet for a moment before finishing, “I called Abby.” Wynonna let out a breath she didn’t know she was keeping and rested her head against the bed.

“You know what she said to me, you know what she said?” He asked, with a slight edge in his voice. When she shook her head, he continued, “She said what am I going to tell our son?”

“What am I supposed to tell that little boy Earp? How am I supposed to tell him about his mama?”

There were more tears now. More shame. “I was so stupid, so gullible.” She said as she struggled to keep a sob from escaping. “I thought she could fight it, I- I thought–”

“Well that doesn’t matter now does it?” He said angrily as he left the bedroom.

She whispered, “No, I guess it doesn’t.”. Pulling the box to her side she began rummaging through it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, seeing as episode 2x10 has aired, how many headcanons have you guys had crushed so far?


	11. Not deserted, not abandoned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wynonna is pulled from her wallowing but confronted with a difficult choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, for somebody with no life outside of work, said life can get incredibly busy. The next chapter will end the chapter 6 saga.

Corey cut the power for the tenth, no, eleventh time? Nicole’s body stopped arching, but her ears wouldn’t stop ringing. Her own screams the cause.

She never knew she could scream that loud.

Jojo watched as she moaned and twitched violently, “So,” he clasped his hands together and leaned into her field of vision, watching her unfocused eyes cross and uncross, “honey just tell me what info Earp has on us and it’ll stop, I promise.”

Too breathless to say anything she just shook her head and glared.

 _You would be difficult._ Jojo thought bitterly.

“You know what I think you want most in life?” He had twisted his lips into a menacing grin.

 _What?_ The hell was he getting at?

He put a hand to her stomach, giggling when she shrunk away from his touch. “I think you want to be Corey’s punching bag.” As he spoke, he shook her lightly. She pulled hard on the chains.

“Oh you can move again, wonderful. Corey likes it when people put up a fight.”

The man in question, along with a few other revenants uncuffed Nicole and pulled her from the table, laughing while she struggled.

“Let me go!” She shouted.

“Oh sure you should have said something.” Corey replied with faux concern and dropped her on the floor. She hit the concrete floor with a loud grunt.

“Better?” He asked. When she didn’t reply he kicked her in the chest.

Struggling between coughs she managed a weak, “Fuck you.”

One of the other revenants in the room, a scruffy looking man with shaggy unkempt brown hair and bushy beard handed Corey her cuffs, “So I guess this must be real insulting for you, bein’ in your own cuffs.” Slapping them on her wrists, he hauled her up with zero effort and hung her on a hook.

Her toes barely scraped the floor. He pushed her lightly. She tried to kick him, but her damn legs just wouldn’t cooperate. Too preoccupied with them, she didn’t notice the fist about to collide with her face.

Then it did.

And then another.

And another.

Jojo watched from the doorway as Corey delivered blow after blow, Nicole’s head slumped forward and their eyes met. And there was a memory, just a brief scene really, of men staring down at him, the blood in his eyes obscuring their faces. Then came the orange glow.

Suddenly uncomfortable, he nodded to the men and took his leave ignoring the bloody eyes following him out the door.

Constance Clootie rounded the corner meeting him outside the room, wearing the hideous black dress Earp and Holliday buried her in. It was still caked in salt and dirt.

“Constance.”

“Joseph.” She looked past him, watching as Corey punched the hapless deputy repeatedly in the stomach. She quirked an eyebrow, “You know I have quicker methods.”

“I’m sure you do, but I wouldn’t deny the boys a bit of fun first.”

She gave him an unimpressed look, “Yeah no, you’re not breaking that ginger clown anytime soon I can already tell.”

Offended now, his eyes burned red, “Ah yes, because dehydrating a gutless witch obviously proves you’re an expert in interrogation.”

“She talked did she not?” Constance replied with a smirk.

He growled, “Again, _gutless_.”

“I can see the headlines, incompetent witch and gay demon fail to extract any information from stubborn lesbian.”

Jojo and Constance turned to find Waverly scowling up at them with irritated black eyes.

“Master!” Jojo bowed his head out of respect, “Uh…”

Constance just rolled her eyes, “Well said Joseph,” she was intrigued though, “this is quite a shocking turn of events. How did this happen?”

The creature smiled, “We called to the youngest Earp, and she answered.”

“I didn’t think her mind was so easily pliable, amazing. Well she was always all bark and no bite.”

“Need I remind you that she smashed your son’s skull against the broad side of a barn while you did virtually nothing?” The creature countered.

Sputtering, Constance tried and failed to come up with any sort of dignifying retort, instead she turned, marching off down the hall.

The remaining two watched her go until loud, pained grunts pulled their attention to the occupied room.

Jojo watched Waverly’s face as wavered between anger and glee. The little twitches her face made were unnerving to watch, he wasn’t quite sure if Waverly was actually having a seizure or not. But then it stopped and the black eyes returned.

The creature disappeared into a black cloud and was gone.

_Looks like you still got a ways to go._

 

Hours later, still alone in Nicole’s room, Wynonna sat clutching a tan camo helmet and flipped through an old photo album. Though setting sun robbed her of any light to see, but she didn’t bother to get up. In her head, Wynonna kept replaying Waverly’s phone call. She had wanted to protect her so badly that she tossed out every single ounce of common sense she had. Was it really her? Was it the creature?

Waverly was strong, and so goddamn stubborn. Wynonna could never understand how she could put up with the bullshit from the people in town. The whispers, the jeers. The looks. Resentful, but with just enough pity thrown in to make you feel worth less than shit.

Maybe she just couldn’t fight it any more.

Wynonna couldn’t blame her really.

She couldn’t see the faces of the people in the pictures, but still felt the need to turn the page. One of the table lamps turned on. “Still here?”

Through squinted eyes, Wynonna saw Tom standing in the doorway. He didn’t look so angry anymore. “May I join you?”

She shrugged, “I don’t see why not.”

Taking a seat beside her, he glanced down at the helmet and album, and noticed the BDU jacket she had on. _Boy she really loves drownin’ herself in guilt_ , he thought, but instead replied, “Woulda thought you’d be down the bar drinkin’ your guilt away.”

She laughed, long and hard, “Oh jesus, yep I’d totally go there, with all you cop assholes and your judgy attitudes and _thanks for killing our friend_ glares.”  

“Oh Earp,” he took the helmet from her, placing it back in the box, “you all went under your own volitions, nobody held guns on ya. I already talked this out with Mr. Holliday, if she didn’t want to go she would have tazed your stupid ass and cuffed ya to a chair. No, she wanted to go. If not for you then for Waverly.”

Tears slid down her cheeks, he wiped them away with his sleeve. “We need you out there Earp.”

Shaking her head, she pulled back out the helmet, “No you don’t, as you can very well see I get people arrested, killed, and kidnapped on a routine basis.” She grinned, but it had no warmth to it, “Wouldn’t be helpful to you in the slightest.”

“Really now?”

“I bring nothing but destruction, I fuck up everybody’s lives–”

“No you don’t.”

“Yes–”

“No. Now get your ass up. Nedley had to call the Mounties in.” He helped her to her feet.

“What? They know too?”

“No, they just know a sheriff’s deputy was abducted early this morning.”

She shook the feeling back into her legs and put the photo album and helmet back in the box, “This shit’s gonna make the news. Not what we need right now”

“Sorry Earp. I uh, had Mr. Holliday sit with a sketch artist I’d like for you to sit with one as well.”

“Why?” she asked, grabbing her jacket.

He held the door for her, “Well we don’t have a photo of this Joseph guy and the only ones who have seen him are you, Mr. Holliday… and Nic.”

 _Oh, right._ They locked up and headed out of the building.

 

“He looks like Bobo, but less crazy ya feel?” Wynonna said to the sketch artist in between bites of her donut.

Befuddled, he asked, “Who is this Bobo guy?”

She let out a noisy sigh and pointed to the picture of him on the corkboard, “Him!”

Exasperated, he replied, “Ms. Earp, that is not helping me. You actually have to describe his features!”

“Oh my god fine Jesus!”

 

“Earp? Earp?”

Wynonna woke to Linda’s gentle prodding, “Gah! …Shit…” With her mind still fuzzy from sleep, she stared blankly around the BBD office, “Oh, fuck, I should get–”

“Let me take you home Earp.”

Awake now, Wynonna pushed Linda away, “Nah, nah…” she took a couple of breaths, “Nic?”

Linda shook her head, “Come on Earp, you know better than that.”

Wynonna couldn’t figure out why she was disappointed, she should know better. “Right… right.”

Linda draped an arm around Wynonna’s shoulders and guided her to the door, “You need a real bed, we can start fresh in the morning.”

 

Running on maybe three hours of sleep and too much coffee, Wynonna charged into the department ready to dive into whatever search and rescue crap the Mounties came up with.

She passed the front desk where Greta was talking to Frank and Colton. A woman with blond hair swept back in a loose bun was seated at the table outside of Nedley’s office. Her back was turned but Wynonna already knew who it was.

“Abby?”

The woman turned and got up from the chair, revealing a grey sweater and khakis that looked slept in. Eyes, red and still damp, narrowed suspiciously at Wynonna, “And you are?”

“Umm Wynonna, Earp.”

“Oh, you’re the sister.”

“You know me?” She would have never have guessed at Nicole mentioning her to her ex. But if she mentioned Waverly, why wouldn’t she throw in Waverly’s alkie demon hunting big sister?

“Of you.” She looked around, “So where is Waverly?” There were hints of accusation, and Wynonna wanted to rage, _why the hell would she think Waverly wouldn’t give a fuck?_

“She’s missing too.” Wynonna replied sharply.

Abby gaped at her. Mocking her probably wasn’t the most mature thing to do, but Wynonna couldn’t help but sneer. _I’ll take your smug ass down a peg._

Abby cleared her throat, obviously embarrassed, “I didn’t know that… No one’s told me anything.”

The door to Nedley’s office opened and a man in a RCMP uniform emerged with Nedley following behind.

Wynonna recognized the man from her juvie days. Not noticing her at first, he turned to Nedley, “Alright Randy, we’ll get the sketches up. We got a team out working with reservation cops out on Chiniki land and another doing a sweep of the barrens.”

“Call me if anything turns up.”

“Will do.” As he turned to leave, his eyes landed on Wynonna, “Earp.”

 “Constable Cox, you get a promotion or somethin’?”

“Yes.” He brushed past her, bumping her shoulder in the process. She wanted to chase after him, but Nedley grabbed her arm.

“Wynonna, I had Gus file a missing persons report for Waverly.”

“What? Why?”

“What do you mean why?”  

Oh no. Nedley glared at her while Abby continued to look dismayed.

“Why would you not file a report?” She stepped into Wynonna’s personal space, “What are you not telling me?”

“I’m sorry.” Wynonna said, “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I-I was gonna do it… eventually.”

Abby stood glaring for a few moments more before stepping back. She didn’t seem convinced but Wynonna figured she was too upset to argue.

“Mom?”

Abby and Wynonna turned to see Nicholas at the door to the bullpen, he was dressed in khakis and a Spider-Man shirt.

God he looked so much like her.

“Hey buddy, don’t go runnin’ off like that.” Tom came up behind him, patting him on the head.

“Sorry.” He ran up to Abby, “Tom showed me around the station and I got to do a dispatch!”

“Really? That’s sounds important.”

Nicholas beamed, showing off his dimples. He noticed Wynonna, his smile faltered, “Hi.”

 _Shit, what am I supposed to say to him?_ “Hi… I’m Wynonna.”

“Oh, Hi…”

Abby just sighed, “You’re definitely your mother’s son. Introduce yourself.”

He scrunched his face up in confusion, “I did.”

“Oh never mind.”

Nicole was a woman of few words around the station and it seemed to Wynonna that Nicholas had inherited more than just her looks. Nedley cocked his head, pulling her from her thoughts and she excused herself to follow him into his office.

“Tom didn’t go runnin’ his mouth to her too, did he?”

Nedley shook his head and groaned as he took a seat at his desk, “No she’s been told that Nic disappeared while investigating potential gang activity.” Closing his eyes, he leaned back and chuckled, “But she’s not stupid,” he opened them, “Asked why a sheriff’s deputy was investigating criminal activity on Native People’s land without reservation police.”

“What did you say to that?”

He sighed, resting his hands on his stomach, “Not a single thing. Caught me off guard.”

Well she is a defense attorney after all. Wynonna walked over to the map of Alberta, there was a pin sticking out of the Chiniki Lake area.

“They’ll be long by now.” She said quietly.

“Out of Alberta you think?”

She turned back to him, “No they can’t leave the triangle, but I doubt they’ll be anywhere near Purgatory, I’d say closer to the border.”

His neutral expression grew somber, “Earp, you do realize that this is going to be out of my jurisdiction soon? The lid may blow off this whole demon thing.”

Her stomach soured. Black Badge would do anything to keep that from happening, even if it meant killing innocents. Hell, they’ve already tried to blow the town up.

“We’ll just have to be extra careful then.” Before he could say anything else she left.

_I need Dolls damnit._

_I need Nicole…_

She wanted to run into the BBD office and avoid Abby and Nicholas. The former stood by the front desk, texting. The latter was nowhere to be found.

“Tom’s a nice guy, he took Nick out for a ride in his cruiser.”

She wanted to say _shouldn’t he be out looking for his patrol buddy?_ But just nodded instead, and sat at the conference table.

Abby sat next to her. She pulled out her phone, Wynonna noticed the lockscreen image was of  Nicole in her BDUs holding a baby, looking down at it with a goofy grin on her face.

“She wasn’t there for his birth.” Oops, Abby must have caught her snooping.

“Really?” So the baby was Nicholas. Of course the baby was Nicholas, why would she have been that happy about someone else’s kid?

“She’d been deployed and was in the field at the time. The fighting was too intense to recall her or the unit to Skype it. She came home about four months later. Couldn’t get her to put him down.”

Her phone’s wallpaper was a photo of a shirtless, bemused looking Nicole in bed clutching her infant son.

“The moment I told her to put him in his crib. I hadn’t seen her in eight months, and instead of doing that, she put a cot in his room and slept there… bitch.” She added the last bit with a small smile.

Wynonna couldn’t help but wonder why they were divorced. Do people keep pictures of their exes as wallpapers? She certainly didn’t. Not that she had any she wanted to remember.

“I uh, I always dreaded something like this back when she was in. That phone call. Seeing her on TV, being paraded around by a bunch of dirty brown guys, or worse,” the tears started again as her voice broke, “Never seeing her again. At least if she died in the field there’d be a body… closure you know, but not if she was captured. How would I explain that to our son?”

“Does he know?”

“No, uh, not the whole story. he just knows she’s missing.” She chuckled, “When I told him he asked if she ran away, I said yeah she got tired of paying the mortgage.” 

Stunned, Wynonna raised a brow. Abby’s face grew pink, “I know, it was inappropriate, but I didn’t want to upset him, not yet anyway.”

So there was definitely some hard feelings between the two. And now was not the time to ask.

Leon and Frank walked in, looking harried and each carrying a box of files. She remembered their plan to get Dolls, and popped up to intercept them.

“Can I talk to you two in private?”

Leon answered, “Well we’re heading to the office anyway so come on.”

“So what’s the plan with Dolls? When are we leaving?” She asked once the door was shut.

They looked at her liked she’d just called them cunts.

“What? No we can’t do that right now, Nic’s missing.” Frank replied, dropping his file box on the table.

“And we need Dolls to help us.” What the hell was wrong with them?

“Earp,” Leon started, “We don’t have the people to put on that right now, he’s not a priority right this second.” He then turned his back to her to set up the boards.

“Are you two serious right now, like actually serious?” Oh she was pissed, how did they think they were going to get Nicole back and deal with creature? “He knows all about this shit, it’s not some trigger-happy gang we’re dealing with! It’s literal demons!”

Leon spun around, “Earp! How the hell do you expect us to break in a black-ops compound? We don’t have the gear for that.”

“What about that Paola chick? You can’t ask her?”

Frank scoffed, “We don’t know her, and she’s not going to get equipment for a bunch of randos because they know her friend. Black-ops doesn’t work like that.”

“You were so gung-ho about it–”

“Yeah well the situation changed.” Frank replied crossly.

“You don’t even care about him do you?” Her hope of getting through to them faded rapidly.

Leon shot back bitterly, “He wasn’t one of us, he was a twat to us most of the time.” There was resentment in his eyes. Then it dawned on her. They were only going to do it because of Nicole, not for her, not for Dolls. Two pairs of infuriated eyes followed her as she slowly backed out of the room.

She brushed past Abby, who had started walking towards her, and struggled to keep tears from falling until she reached an empty hallway.

An image of Dolls in the back of that truck flashed in her mind, and it hurt, the idea of never seeing him again actually hurt. She’d been betrayed all over again. Of course by cops, why did she trust them she should have known better.

She retched into the trash can. With legs too weak to hold her up, Wynonna sank to the floor hoping she wouldn’t have to puke again.

She felt a presence beside her but refused to turn. Doc knelt beside her, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Wynonna, I don’t know how the two of us would be able to pull off such a stunt ourselves, I’m skilled in many areas but I’m no magician.” Sighing, he made himself comfortable on the floor next to her before continuing, “I found out this morning from Officer Miller that the others were abandoning the plan, it was quite a shock but I am not entirely surprised.”

“I don’t want to let him go.”

“We are not letting him go. We are picking our battles, as he’d want us too.”

He took her into his arms and she wept.

 

It took a week. One week of useless CCTV feeds, fruitless searches in the Barrens, and bullshit leads. One week.

In the middle of a meet up with Doc, Tom, Linda, and a group of Mounties in the Barrens her phone rang. It was an unknown caller.

She briefly considered letting it go to voicemail, but something told her it was important. “Hello?”

“Earp.” Wynonna recognized the voice immediately.

“Lucado?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any thoughts about season 3? I am so ready for Nicole's culty family.


	12. Progress, this is progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Black Badge makes an offer Wynonna would be hard pressed to pass up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes for those of you wondering, I am still updating this fic. My miserable life just got in the way (who knew being an adult could suck this much?)  
> For anyone who has also read The Children's Protection Agency, I do have chapter 3 partially finished and will update that as well (eventually).

“Boy, that was fun huh? See you workin’ up a sweat there.” Corey wiped his blood-stained hands on an old towel. Nicole hung from the ceiling, hands tied with rope this time, Jojo’s request after he noticed her hands turning purple. Because she needs them apparently, but not before they tied her feet to a cinderblock after she repeatedly kicked them.

She didn’t answer. Head drooping forward, bloody drool streamed from her mouth.

“You got anything to say?”

Between ragged breaths she managed a weak smile and answered, “I’m pretty and I don’t deserve this.”

She let out a wheezy laugh at his scowl. He punched her in the stomach, sending her in to another coughing fit.

 “You think you’re a tough bitch huh?” Corey unfurled the roll-up.

 _Oh not this again,_ Nicole thought. The pain had become unbearable, she didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to betray Wynonna. She didn’t want to die a coward. But she didn’t know how much more she could take. The razor bit into her side, she cried out in agony, “Shoulda stayed in Calgary!”.

Taking a large needle from the roll-up, he shoved it into her stomach, “Shoulda… fixed… my marriage!” She said between pained grunts.

Corey plunged another needle into her side, “The things I do for women!” she shouted through gritted teeth. He took the razor to her back eliciting a yelp. “Sho-shoulda stayed in the army, yeah get a desk job, do HR _shit_!”. She cried out as a needle dug deep into her back.

Corey sighed. It had been over a week and they were getting nowhere. Skinny bitch was more trouble than she looked. Luckily Earp and her band of morons hadn’t a fucking clue as to where they were. So they still had time.

He put the razor down and grabbed her face, squeezing it tightly.

“You wanna kiss?” Nicole pursed her lips, chuckling at his disgust.

“No,” He looked around the room, eyes finally settling on a lone gas tank in the corner by the door. Enormous and still seated in its trolley, Corey stared at it for a moment before returning his attention to Nicole.

A fiendish smile slowly spread across his face, “I have an idea.” He released her face and she watched as he made his way over to the tank.

The realization hit her, hard. “No! No! That’s, that’s not necessary!” She pleaded helplessly, he ignored her, and instead wheeled the trolley over to the table and called for the others.

“Oy! Joe, Clem, yo!” The men in question found Corey leaning against the tank, grinning.

He didn’t need to say a single thing. Jojo giggled and nearly skipped out of the room singing about seeing a torch somewhere while Clem muttered something about tubing and followed him out.

The worst burn Nicole had ever gotten was a second degree sunburn on her back during a vacation to Florida with Abby. Day drinking and sunbathing. What a terrible combination. She tried to picture the warm sand, waves crashing against the shore, Abby arguing with a couple of overweight British tourists over the differences in tort law between England and Canada.

How drunk did you have to be to argue tort law with fat Brits? _Happy thoughts Nic, just think happy thoughts._

“Ha— happy… thoughts,” through labored breaths, she struggled to get the words out, “Ha— happy…” The needles still stuck in her torso tugged painfully with every breath.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up.” One by one, he yanked the needles out.

Nicole barely had a chance to react before the next one was ripped out.

“Ahhh! Fuck!”

“Oh quit bitchin’ this is the least painful thing I’ve done to you all week.”

She stopped shouting, but couldn’t not yelp as the last needle was pulled.

Corey wiped the needles clean and put them back.

“Ok you,” He cut the rope anchoring her to the cinderblock, and lifted her off the hook like she was a coat on a rack, “let’s getcha set up ‘fore the fellas come back.”

He dumped her on the table, she should have tried to escape, just slide off the table and make a run for it.

She _should_ have. No instead she just laid there in agony waiting to be burnt to a crisp.

He cut the rope binding her hands, a bit curious as to why she wasn’t trying to take any swipes at him. His curiosity only grew as he cuffed her to the table with no resistance.

He noticed tears leaking out of the corners of her swollen eyes, he took a rag from his back pocket and wiped the tears and caked blood from her face. “Why don’t you save the waterworks for the fellas, huh?” He kissed her cheek, chuckling as she jerked her head away, muttering something unintelligible.

Jojo and Clem returned with Jojo passing the torch off to Clem who hooked up the equipment and passed the torch off to Corey, who waggled his eyebrows at Nicole as he turned on the gas.

“So how we gonna do this,” Jojo asked.

Confused, Corey pulled out his lighter, “I roast her, and you ask questions?”

“No–” God Corey could be an idiot sometimes, “She’s gonna buck and squirm.”

“Well just pin ‘er down then, I’ll tell ya to move if I need ya to.”

Jojo just shrugged took an arm to her chest, pinning her with his body weight.

Someone stood at the door, watching them. Nicole only caught a glimpse of brown hair pulled back into an intricate looking bun over Jojo’s shoulder. That meant the observer was most likely female.

_It couldn’t be..._

Then Jojo moved to give Corey more space to work and Nicole had a clear view of the door.

Leaning against the door frame in a tight, red sleeveless dress, Waverly watched the humiliating spectacle unfold.

“Waverly?” She cried out, “Waverly help me!” Waverly didn’t answer, didn’t move, she just looked on in mild amusement. The little hope Nicole had left died with the realization Waverly wasn’t in control.

She let it win.  

As Corey hovered over her with the torch, “Waverly?” she pleaded one last time.

She answered with only silence and a smirk.

On a drive from Kandahar to some border village during her first deployment, the Humvee in front of the truck carrying her squad hit a landmine. The guy on the gun was ejected from his seat, landing in a bloody heap. The blast flipped the vehicle on its side and ignited the fuel tank, within seconds it was engulfed in flames.

Nicole could still hear the screams of the men trapped inside.

And just like that, she had a new fear.

With the torch lit, Corey brought it close to Nicole’s face and she jerked her head away, but Jojo grabbed a fist full of her hair and yanked it back under the flame.

“Don’t worry dear,” Corey said as he waved the flame over her face, “I’m not going to burn pretty face. No,” he brought the flame down to her abdomen, so close she could feel the heat, “at least not yet anyway.”

As the flame came closer, Nicole’s mind finally started to tell her to fight back. Of course it would be too late, tied down and pinned under some undead twat all attempts she made to free herself were as pointless as crying to her possessed girlfriend for help.  

She watched helplessly as Corey brought the torch to her skin and shrieked wildly as it charred her flesh.

 

Wynonna and Doc stood under a flickering light in an abandoned Target parking lot. The drive out to Saint Albert was a snowy pain in the ass, but there they stood; in negative twenty-degree weather, in leather pants no less.

For Lucado.

For Dolls.

Wynonna pulled the photo of Nicole and Nicholas out of her pocket.

For them.

Doc impatiently glanced at his watch, “She said eleven, it is now eleven twenty fi–”

Four black SUVs encircled them, “Should’ve opened my mouth earlier. Wouldn’t have had to freeze my ass off.” Doc said bitterly.

Doors opened and an irritated Lucado emerged bundled in a thick, black parka, “My apologies, route two was a disaster. Now why don–”

“Where is he?” Wynonna growled, stepping towards the other woman. Doc pulled her back just as the other agents drew their weapons. Lucado’s smug, amused expression never wavered.

“Answer my questions first, how were the missiles destroyed?” She watched as Wynonna and Doc shifted uncomfortably.

“The thing did it.” Wynonna mumbled.

“What thing?”

“We… are not sure. But whatever it is, it’s using Waverly as a vessel or host of some sort and has joined forces with the Revenants.”

Wynonna shoved him, “Why did you tell her?”

Doc winced a bit, “Oh darlin’, with the damn thing runnin’ around the triangle she would have found out eventually.”

He did have a point. So she added, “And they have Nicole.”

Lucado’s eyebrows went up, “And just how long have they had Nicole?

“A week.” Wynonna answered

“Ok so we assume that she has divulged sensitive information.”

“Officer Haught would never succumb to torture” Doc spat.

Lucado hmphed, “Everyone has their breaking point, I’m assuming she’s reached hers. What does she know that these Revenants could use? In fact, what does Waverly know that they could use?”

“Nicole…” The book! That’s right… but that was it. They were, and still are stumped. But Waverly, she knew _everything_. “We never really filled Nicole in so to speak, but we were researching the creature. She thought she had a lead, but it was in an old ass language that she couldn’t read. Waverly…”

“Is privy to a tremendous amount of information, Xavier told me as much in interrogation.”

Wynonna recoiled at the word, “What have you done to him?”

A smile, faint and smug, formed, “That is none of your concern right now. You want help, you have to do something for me.”

Fuming, Wynonna felt herself charging at Lucado again. She was hurting him, that miserable bitch was hurting him. Doc pulled her back without taking his eyes off the other woman, “You’re not helping us right now.” He said quietly.

“That quick temper is going to get you nowhere fast Earp. Now, my proposition, get me one of these Revenants, seeing as you killed the one we already had. So my people can study them at our facility at Wilson Lake, and… you’ll get equipment and man power to find your friend and sister.”

“They can’t leave the triangle,” Wynonna stated firmly, “they are bound to it because of the curse. You want them, you’re gonna have to set up shop here.”

Aggravated by the prospect of having to relocate, Lucado shifted her weight onto one leg and threw her hands on her hips rather childishly, “Are you fucking serious Earp?” At Wynonna’s slow nod she sighed, “Fine! Fine, it’s settled—”

“I only want him.” Wynonna interrupted.

Lucado had a few choice words but held her tongue, “Get me what I want, and we’ll discuss that… _issue._ ”

Wynonna held her icy glare until Lucado broke eye contact first.

“If we’re done here, I’ll be in touch.”

Wynonna left the group abruptly, walking briskly to Nicole’s car leaving Doc to jog to catch up to her.

“Progress Miss Earp.” He said, holding the driver’s side door open for her.

“That’s what we’re calling this?” She replied bitterly.

“Didn’t know you were military Earp.” Lucado called out.

“What?” Oh right, the plates…

She turned to find Lucado nearing the front of the car while staring curiously at the license plate.

“It’s uh… Nicole’s car. Thought you had a file on me.”

“I do,” she returned her attention to them, “would have been surprising if I had missed something.” She cocked her head, “What does Officer Haught look like?”

Wynonna and Doc exchanged puzzled looks.

“If you want help it’d be nice to have a face to go with a name.”

Secret government agent asking for something she could easily get from her spy buddies, not strange at all. Wynonna pulled the photo out of her pocket, handing to her.

All signs of arrogance melted from the woman as she gazed intensely at the photo, eyes no longer cold but filled with sorrow. After a moment, she tucked the photo away in an interior jacket pocket. The expression on her face matched the sorrow in her eyes, “I didn’t know how to tell him his father died, my son I mean… Greg was his whole world.”

This unexpected piece of personal information, threw Wynonna, who watched as Lucado looked towards the highway, a sad smile slowly spreading on her face as she reminisced.

Suddenly aware of her actions Lucado cleared her throat, “Well uh, yeah… Earp.” With a curt nod, she quickly walked back to the SUVs.

Stunned, Wynonna and Doc stood for a moment before the chilly wind forced them into the car. Inside Doc cranked the heat, “Progress my dear.” He said as he rubbed his frozen hands together.

 “You keep calling it that, I don’t really think it is.” The snow had started to fall more steadily during the meeting, getting home was going to be an even bigger pain. Still, she put the car in drive and crawled out of the parking lot.

“Shit she took the photo!” Wynonna exclaimed, shaking Doc, startling him the process.

“She wha– oh…”

“Fuck, she caught me off guard with that dead husband shit and just waltzed off with my picture.”

Doc had to suppress a grin, “I am sure she will give it back. In fact, next time you see her you should ask for it.”

Over the past week, he’d caught Wynonna sneaking peeks at it. Attributing it to a guilty conscious at first, he didn’t think much of it until he walked in on her pulling an all-nighter at the office. Laptop open with the photo propped up by a stack of books, he watched as she typed and talked; updating it on her progress, bitching about note taking, whatever came to mind she said to the photo.

Strange and maybe a tad unhealthy, he understood why.

More than just a tangible reminder to keep going, it seemed to serve as a form of therapy that helped calm her.

As the car slowly started to fishtail down route two he was brought back to reality, turning to see Wynonna giving him an exaggerated scowl before she attempted to straighten out the car. “This bitch needs snow tires.” She muttered as they drifted into the other lane.

With another car just missing them, Doc tightened his seatbelt, “I suppose this won’t be a leisurely drive,” he gasped as a big rig came within inches of hitting them, “no I guess not.” He finished, answering his own question.

“Relax bro I got this.” Assured Wynonna. “Who’s on duty tonight, we should update the troops.”

After taking a moment to steady his breathing and calm his heart he replied, “Officer Molineux?”

“Fuck him.”

“Officer Deveraux?”

Wynonna’s jaw clenched before she answered, “Fuck his mother.”

After what happened with their plan to rescue Dolls, Wynonna had kept a wide distance from Frank and Leon. He understood why, but felt it was still childish to avoid interacting with either man. Especially with so much at stake.

“Officer Tran?”

“Oooh yeah let’s call Linda, I think she’s working a speed trap.”

“Speeding in this weather?”

“Doc, Purgatory is in Hickville, Alberta where nobody gives a flyin’ fuck about the weather.” On route two sixteen now, she put her phone on Bluetooth and soon Linda’s voice replaced Mick Jaggar’s.

“Earp? What’s the deal?”

“We got good news,” she replied while straightening the car once again, “aaannnd some bad news.” She finished, silently congratulating herself on not crashing.

“Good then bad, in the mood to get my hopes up tonight.”

“Alrighty then, good news is Lucado’s gonna help us…”

“But?”

“We have to catch a revenant first.”

“Shit… We’re gonna need Chris Hanson for this.”

Snorting, Wynonna shook her head but a smile ended up forming anyway. She briefly imagined getting Jojo to meet to trade Peacemaker only to have Chris Hanson and a camera crew show up instead.

“Who in the fuck is that?” Asked Doc, shooting her a bewildered look.

“You gotta fill him in, I don’t have the time tonight.”

“Fuck why not, ain’t getting home till tomorrow in this weather anyhow.”

“Later Earp.”

“Yup.” She hung up and leaned forward to try and get a better view of the falling snow. Fat, wet flakes accumulated on the windshield faster than the damn wipers could wipe them off.

Then the snowplows came. One by one they crept on to the highway. “Nope, I refuse to get trapped behind these assholes, grab the chicken stick Doc!” And she gunned it past the plows, and in an instant, the tires lost all traction sending the car sliding down the road like an expensive sled.

“God damn Wynonna!” Doc screamed as the car spun out into a snow bank. Undeterred, Wynonna reversed and was back on the highway in a jiffy, whooping as the snowplows’ lights faded in the rear-view mirror.

Google said it would only take three maybe four hours tops to get back.

At six forty-eight the following morning Wynonna and Doc coasted into Purgatory on fumes.     

 

“What’s the plan Earp.” Nedley’s gruff voice greeted her as she entered the BBD office twenty minutes later.

Wynonna looked at the corkboard, on it were pictures of known and suspected revenants, she turned to Doc, “Let’s start by putting names to faces.” If they were going to catch a revenant and track down Jojo, they were going to have to identify as many could, plus their human associates.

He nodded, pointing to a picture of a scruffy looking white, brown haired man, “I know this is Clem,” Linda wrote his name on a note card, tacking it under Clem’s scowling face. “William.” He said next, pointing to a doughy, weather worn faced man, with unkempt long grey hair, and hate filled green eyes. A note card went under his name as well.

 His finger landed on a sketch of pudgy nosed balding man, he stared intensely for a moment before his lip started to curl. “Corey,” he snarled, surprising everyone, “I know who this fucker is now.”

He turned to face the others, “Him and Bobo were very close, I heard around the trailer park if Bobo had someone who he thought had _information_ , he took them to Corey.”

Every face in the room went grim.

A brief silence followed before Frank asked, “Was he any good?”

“Oh the best.” Doc replied quietly.

No one in the room was naïve enough to think that Nicole was just locked away in some room without wifi. No, they knew what was happening, but none of them could bring themselves to admit it out loud.

“She won’t make it easy.” Frank said, breaking the silence that hung over the room.

“No she won’t.” Tom agreed.

 _She shouldn’t have to,_ Wynonna thought bitterly, “Anybody else?” She gestured to the board.

“I’m thinking I’m thinking,” He zeroed in on one photo, a balding man with a buzzcut, “Joe Wallace.” He added tapping the man’s picture. “Human, ex-military, very loyal to Bobo.”

“Do you think this loyalty extends to his younger brother?” Nedley asked.

Doc turned to him, grinning he said, “He works as a bouncer at some sleezy club at the other end of town, I think we should go ask him.”

Nedley watched as evil little smiles started appearing on his deputies’ faces, “Now we do this by the book you understand me?” He said wagging a scolding finger at the men.

Frank’s evil little smile grew, “So plain clothes, off duty, and thuggish as fuck?”

Nedley jabbed a finger at him, then again before repeating, “By the book.”.

Plastering a serious look on his scheming face, Frank nodded, “Yes sir.”

“I don’t trust you.” Nedley replied before trudging out of the room.

They waited until Nedley was back in his office before continuing. “So tell me about this Wallace fella.” Tom said to Doc.

“Well, he supplied the gang’s weaponry, explosives you know that sort of stuff.”

“He must have a rap sheet then, should go look him up.” Leon added.

“What’s the name of the club he works at?” Frank asked logging into the department’s database.

Doc had to think for a moment, “Pink something, kinda forget.”

There were a few “pink” named clubs in the area, so Wynonna ventured a guess, “The Pink Cherry?”

Doc snapped his fingers, “You are correct. Sleezy little place.”

“Yeah but they have great wings.” All eyes were on Wynonna the moment she opened her mouth. Tom gave her an intrigued look, while the others remained awkwardly silent.

“What?”

They all shook their heads. Moving the conversation along before they got curious, “So what is the plan Frank?”

 

In three unmarked cruisers, Wynonna, Doc, and the deputies circled The Pink Cherry. The plan, simple; force him out the back into the alley and make him talk. Doc and Wynonna went through the front. Wallace, dressed in torn black jeans and the ugliest fringed leather jacket she’d ever seen, stood at the bar on the right watching the patrons; making sure no one touches the titties. Wynonna couldn't help but think back to when she was 18, so desperate for a ticket out, baring it all for drunk horny men. She ended up right back in Purgatory anyway so what was the point of it?

“Joe Wallace?” she shouted over the music.

His head whipped around, his passive expression instantly souring.

"Shit" was all he said before darting towards the back exit.

"Why you gotta run?" Wynonna yelled after him. Doc raced past her, she sighed and started running, narrowly dodging drunk handsy patrons.

Joe smashed through the back door stumbling into the alley with Doc right behind him. Grabbing Joe's jacket, Doc slammed him against the wall, Joe turned quickly, throwing a sloppy punch that Doc easily dodged.

"I'd cut that shit out Joe."

Joe stopped momentarily to find peacemaker pointed at his head.

"Ah fuck." he raised his hands, but slowly began walking backwards down the alley.

"You might wanna turn around bro."

Joe turned again to find Frank, Leon, Tom, and Colton blocking his exit.

Facing Wynonna and doc again, he watched as Linda and four other plain clothes deputies blocked the alleyway behind them.

Defeated, he scowled before dropping his hands to his sides.

"Joseph Svane." Wynonna said, with peacemaker still pointed at him.

The scowl returned, "Why the fuck would I know where that little faggot is?"

"Well you worked for Bobo, so must have some idea as to where this 'little faggot' is."

He spit at the ground, "Not a single fucking clue, he never told me his about his little fag ass plans, and I never fucking cared to ask."

Alright then, time to try a different tactic. “Ok so, do you know where any of his associates are?”

His eyes narrowed, “Why?” he snarled, “You want me sellin’ out demons for you to shoot Earp?”

“Well let’s put it this way,” Leon butted in, “you could just give us some names and locations or we could take you in on warrants for smuggling and shit.”

He looked at Wynonna, his face showing his deep contemplation, after a couple of minutes passed he answered, “His name’s Ugly Mick, ‘cause he’s ugly and Irish. Guess he was an outlaw or some shit back in the day. Anyway Bobo didn’t trust him and when you offed him Mick went straight to Jojo beggin’ for work. Lives out in Kananaskis doin’ odd shit don’t know the addy.”

He looked so ashamed that he was talking, Wynonna actually felt bad for him.

So much for his hardened criminal, tough guy image.

But he wasn’t done talking. He gave the back of his neck a rub and sighed, “There’s this one other dude, scary motherfucker, liked to carve up the homeless and shit. Well I don’t know his real name but everyone called him Forest ‘cause he lived in the Barrens in his little murder hut.”

Well fuck they certainly didn’t know anything about this guy.

She thought of the Jack of Knives, and shuddered at the thought of there being another like him still roaming free.

“Back up back up.” Tom interrupted, “We combed that whole goddamn forest lookin’ Nic, and you’re telling me we missed some demon serial killer?”

Joe shrugged, “He hides it with magic, I dunno. Anyway, him and Jojo are close so he probably knows shit.”

Well, “That was surprisingly easy to get out of you.” Wynonna said after taking a moment to process everything.

“I have kids Earp,” he didn’t look so tough now, “I got a rap sheet a mile long and I can’t get a normal job, I need to be there for them.”

“Fair enough I guess.” Who knew he was a family man, “Don’t leave town or whatever.” She said before he went back inside.

“Kananaskis is under your jurisdiction correct?” Doc asked the deputies as they left the alley.

“Yep, part of Ghost River County.” Linda answered.

“Guess y’all should head over there and find this ugly little Irishman.”

“Oh yeah that’s gonna be real easy to do.” Leon replied sarcastically before ducking into his cruiser.

 

Ugly Mick was, in fact, easy to track down. Almost too easy for Tom’s liking but he wasn’t going to argue. Because they needed a revenant to take to the Yanks, they came to the agreement that good ‘ol Ugly Mick would that guy.

It was however, unfortunate that they were currently involved in a shootout involving three different departments, because Mick decided he _needed_ to get involved in a kidnapping, extortion ring, and homicide in Calgary. Causing the Sheriff’s department, Calgary P.D., and the Mounties to throw tantrums at each other over who’d get the arrest.

Nedley could deal with that. He was too preoccupied listening to the sound of pinging as Mick took pot shots at the cruisers. Earp was on the phone, he didn’t know who with but it looked serious. She smiled momentarily as she scribbled something into a notepad. Hanging up she did a little happy dance, surprising him, and nearly skipped over to him.

“Ok so good news, just good news.” She said, a little giddy.

“Well? Spill.” He replied, slightly confused, but he wasn’t about to ruin it.

“We aren’t going to have to worry about who gets the arrest, these clowns,” she said jerking a thumb at the Calgary cops and Mounties, “are going to get a stand down order from the commissioner, and then we can move in.”

“That it?”

“No, no there’s more. Lucado gave us an address for the transfer. Bragg Creek,” she shook her head, “They couldn’t be closer to Purgatory?”

He shrugged, “Guess not. Oh, looks like our friends are leaving, wonderful.”

“Hey look, those pompous twats are leaving.” Frank said cheerfully as he approached them.

Tom frowned, “Don’t look too happy, fix your gear boy we’re going in.”

 

It was quiet when they entered. Figuring Mick got wise once he noticed it was just PSD cruisers left they anticipated an ambush.

Or traps at least.

The back door led directly into the kitchen, which was a total mess. Checking for trip wires, the team moved slowly trying to avoid stepping on noisy trash. The walls were a piss yellow and what they could see of the floor; it _may_ have been white in a past life.

Moving into the hallway on the left, there was dining room, then the living room. The place looked like a time capsule from 1955 with all its old furniture and knick-knacks.

With no one hiding in the closets, one team took the stairs, the other headed for the basement.

No traps yet. Maybe Mick didn’t have time to prepare. As they got to the top of the stairs Wynonna heard rustling from one of the bedrooms.

Bingo.

Mick made the mistake of peeking out of one of the bedroom doors, he met Wynonna’s eyes and swore.

“Hi Mickey.” She said playfully.

He slammed the door shut and she heard something being dragged. Barricading himself in, maybe making an escape through the window? Didn’t matter the place was crawling with deputies.

“Somebody get me an ax and a crowbar,” Leon said, passing Wynonna, “I’m going to pry this fucker out if I have to.”

The bathroom next to the bedroom Mick was currently hiding in had a window, might as well check to make sure he wasn’t trying to sneak out. Opening it, she found about a dozen deputies in the backyard and the bedroom windows still closed. Yeah no, he wasn’t getting out of this easily.

“Well,” she heard the stairs creek, and Frank’s voice, “Nothing in the basement, ‘cept this.” Poking her head out of the bathroom she saw him hand Leon a small chainsaw. Leon’s smile was huge, and menacing.

“Well, well, what a surprise,” he said quietly, taking it from Frank, “And quite convenient.” He finished, accent more noticeable than before. He pulled the cord, the saw started almost immediately, startling damn near everyone.

Then he winked. He had no goddamn right to be that attractive while holding a goddamn chainsaw.

“Stand clear.” Everyone moved out of the way as he started sawing the door down. “Hey Mickey,” Leon shouted over the obnoxiously loud buzz, “We’re commin’ in!” Despite the chainsaw’s size, the door was no match and within minutes Leon had most of the door and part of whatever was blocking it in pieces.

That’s when the shooting started. Colton moved in with the ballistic shield. They had no other choice but to exchange fire, Leon managed to hit Mick in the shoulder but the guy was already dead so what was the damn point?

“Well this is going to go nowhere really fast.” Doc muttered. He entered the bathroom, and after giving the window a cursory inspection, he put his hat on the sink and told Wynonna, “Tell ‘em to get Mick near the window.”

She looked at him funny but he just shot her an emphatic look so she sighed and tapped Frank on the shoulder. “Doc says to get him closer to the window.”

Frank just nodded and headed over to Leon.

Wynonna turned back to Doc but he was already sticking halfway out of the window.

 _He is not going to shoot him?_ Though he was probably going to have to at this point. She watched as Leon tossed something in the room, and a few moments later a loud bang was followed by a smoke cloud.

She saw Doc aim, and then bang.

Bang.

Bang.

There was a thud from the bedroom, an indication of Doc’s success. Leon poked his head in after the smoke dissipated some, “He’s down, let’s move in.”

“Okay but you’re not actually going to use that ball gag you brought, right?” Colton asked him as they cleared the remaining debris from the doorway.

“The hell else am I going to gag him with?”

“You own a ball gag?” Wynonna asked.

“Nah it’s not mine it’s Nic’s.”

Wynonna stopped dead causing Doc and several deputies to crash into her, unfazed by them she stared in dismay at him. He just held up his hands, “Take it up with Nic when we find her I don’t know nothing about anything.”

“I-uh, yeah sure.” _No too many weird images, this is too serious for that no!_

Instead of dwelling, she bustled past everyone without making eye contact until she was standing over Ugly Mick’s unconscious form.

“I’d say make your peace,” she said as she instinctively held Peacemaker’s grip, “but ironically it’s not your time just yet.” She stepped back and let the deputies secure him for transport.

 

The address Lucado gave led them to an old factory, where outside a couple dozen agents waited for them.

“I got a package for Lucado.” Wynonna said, no one cracked a smile. “Tough crowd.”

“We’ll take it from here Ms. Earp.” A young looking black male agent said as other agents retrieved Mick from the trunk of Nicole’s car.

Another agent handed him a thick folder, which he handed to her. “This is from agent Lucado, it’s a dossier on entities capable of possession known to Black Badge.”

“Umm wow, quid pro quo and shit I guess?”

He actually smiled this time. “Something like that.” They watched as the agents carried in a squealing, writhing body bag. “Agent Lucado will contact you shortly with further information.”

 

Black Badge moved quickly, she didn’t realize just how quick until her phone rang jolting her out of a sound sleep and Lucado was yelling in her ear about not being at the station. Throwing on a comfy red sweater she stole from Nicole’s bag, that had remained relatively untouched next to the couch for the past couple of weeks. She slipped on a pair of black leather pants and scrambled to finish getting ready.

Barreling out of the house she slammed into a solid, yet soft mass. With a few choice words ready to hurl at the humanoid obstacle in front of her, she looked up to find Dolls staring down at her.

It was Dolls. Dolls was here, right here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so ready for July


	13. Fall in line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Black Badge takes over the investigation and the gang is one step closer to finding Nicole.  
> Lucado gives Wynonna some interesting news about Waverly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating now because I hate leaving people hanging.  
> As a forewarning, some of the more graphic tags appear in this chapter.

“Oh my god.” Tears flowed as they embraced. When he hissed, she pulled back sputtering an apology.

“It’s ok, I’m ok.” He said softly, wiping tears from her face.

She stepped back, getting a better look at him. He was hunched forward, favoring his left side and his face… he may have been incredibly dark skinned but Wynonna knew bruises when she saw them. “It’s not ok, how could you be _ok_ with this?”

He sobered, “Never said I was. But I’m trained to handle situations like that, I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll kill her.”

He laughed, “No you won’t.”

“Yes I will.” She replied angrily. She was baffled by his aloofness to the situation.

“No, let’s go it’s freezing.”

She wasn’t going to get anywhere with him on this. “Why are you even out here, why didn’t you call?”

“I wanted to be outside you know, it’s nice to be outside, so I just had them drop me off.”

She slipped an arm around his waist as they walked to the car. It was still too much to process for her. Dolls was here, Black Badge was actually honoring their deal. Doc was right she thought. Progress.

“So Doc still a dick?” He asked.

Chuckling she answered, “He is not a dick.”

“So that is a yes, how is everyone else?”

“God they’re all a wreck.”

They got in the car, “So nobody’s told me anything except that Officer Haught is missing, and Waverly is possessed?” He didn’t mean it to come out as a question, but he just couldn’t believe it. She filled him in as she drove, he listened silently. Of course he’d have access to the reports at the station but he wanted to hear it for himself.

When she finished he asked, “So this Jojo clown hasn’t tried contacting you, no taunts or demands?” She shook her head, they hadn’t heard so much as a peep from the revenants. He continued, “I wouldn’t call it a hostage situation, it doesn’t sound like one.” He glanced over at Wynonna, noticing her white knuckling the steering wheel.

“They knew what they were doing.” She said through clenched teeth.

He could empathize, he knew what it was like to make a poor judgement call, to watch people pay dearly for it.

He was well aware of the guilt she carried.

“They wanted all of us, but of course me most importantly, coz I’m the heir.” She said bitterly.

“And they caught the most clueless person in the bunch instead.”

Her glare was scathing, “You really think that’s fucking funny?”

“I never said anything about humor. And don’t tell me it’s not true.” Oh no, tact was never his strong suit.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s true, they are fucking torturing her!” She yelled.

He needed to yank the foot out of his mouth and fast before she got any angrier, “Wynonna please,” she went to open her mouth again so he said again, “please,” she closed it and turned her attention back to the road, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to say it was funny, I don’t think anything about this situation is funny. I’m sorry if it sounded that way.”

“Ok,” ok maybe she overreacted, he was known to be blunt, “sorry for screaming.” She looked at him, moody looking and slouched with his head propped up by a fist, not usual Dolls posture. Yeah, he was sorry.

The two stayed quiet for a while. When he felt that the tension in the car was no longer so thick he could cut it with a hacksaw, Dolls asked, “So how are you doing?”

Wynonna laughed humorlessly, “I don't even know, I really don't.” Dolls laid a hand on her thigh, squeezing lightly. Her mind flashed back to the drive up to the saw mill, to Nicole's reassuring gesture. She disappeared after that. “You better not leave me again.” She said out loud.

“I won't.” Dolls replied.

She looked at him, mortified, “I did not mean for you to hear that.”

He laughed, “Oops I guess.”

“Shut up asshole.”

 

The station was bustling when they arrived.

“It's a god damn zoo in there.” Nedley said as he intercepted them outside the BBD office.

“They stole my white board.” Linda added bitterly as she approached the trio.

“Oh you poor thing.” Wynonna said sarcastically.

“Oh piss off. Deputy Marshall.” Linda greeted dolls with a nod.

“Deputy.” Dolls replied returning the nod.

“So the feds want to start tracking down this serial killer, I guess they got some info out of that revenant we caught.” Linda said, getting them up to speed as they entered the office.

“You're late Earp.” Lucado shouted at her over the clamor of the agents and deputies. She stood at the back of the room in front of a white board dressed in a funereal black skirt suit and crisp white blouse. Even her ice pick heels were black.

The outfit must have been from Mark Jacobs’s funeral director line. “Sorry,” she tossed her jacket on the table, ignoring the papers it sent flying, and glares from tired, harried agents, “it’s not like anyone told me yesterday I needed to be here at the ass crack of dawn o’clock in the morning.”

“Professional as always I see.” Lucado replied sarcastically.

Wynonna gave her a mock salute. Her and Dolls grabbed the first two available seats they could find in the crowded office.

“Alright since everyone is now in attendance I’d like to begin.” Lucado announced, when everyone quieted down she continued, “Now with the capture of the revenant demon known as,” she paused and sighed, clearly annoyed at having to say such a stupid name, “Ugly Mick, we’ve been able to ascertain the locations of several revenants who are not related to this case and this.” the lights dimmed as she pulled down a projector screen.

Several gasps could be heard from the deputies as Ugly Mick came on the screen. He was completely naked and strapped down to a table, but that wasn’t even remotely the worst part. He’d been cut open from neck to groin exposing rotted internal organs. And he was conscious.

A black male agent came on screen and began asking questions. If Mick wasn’t outright shrieking, he answered in an agonized, guttural voice.

“We’ve been made aware of a revenant living in the Pine Barrens, what is his name?” The agent asked.

“I don’t know,” his voice was hoarse, “I don’t know!”

“It was said that he uses magic to conceal his location, what type is it?” Wynonna shouldn’t have been shocked by how calmly the agent conducted interrogation. He was probably used to it. Probably graduated top of his class at torture college too.

“Runes!” Mick hissed out, “Runes, pagan, Norse shit!” He screamed before passing out.

And with that, the video ended and the lights back on.

Many of the deputies were pale and visibly shaken, while the Black Badge agents remained passive. Yep, definitely used to it.

“Ok, we have reason to believe that Mr. Mick isn’t lying so our linguists have started researching various Runic languages, concentrating on Norse Runes. They will be working in tandem with our occult researchers to figure out which spells or charms this revenant is using.”

Apparently, that torture porn video poorly disguised as an “update” was the most interesting thing to happen at the meeting, as Lucado droned on for two hours about mythology and god only know what else.

Wynonna wished for Waverly to walk through the door. At least she’d make the book stuff bearable.

As soon as the meeting was over, Wynonna shot up out of her chair and dragged Dolls out of his, muttering apologies as he hissed in pain. Doc joined them, and the trio was nearly out of the room when Lucado shouted, “Earp? I have a case for you!”

It took every ounce of strength Wynonna had to not throw a hissy fit in front of everyone. She turned around, “Because I absolutely have time for your bullshit side quests.”

“Excellent, we’ll use Xavier’s office for the briefing.”

Wynonna could have sworn the woman winked at her. _Boy she just loves fucking with me._

Waverly found herself staring at staring at an old spell book. Any other day it’d be a familiar, comforting sight, but she wasn’t in the BBD office. She was alone in a cramped little storage closet sitting at what barely passed as a desk.

There’d be no Dolls to demand an update or Wynonna to fling stale pieces of donut at her until she bought them both lunch.

No Doc.

No Nicole...

... Nicole!

How could she forget about Nicole? She needed to get Nicole. But why? Everything was so fuzzy in her mind. Someone was in danger but who?

_Waverly please!_

Nicole, beaten and bloody flashed in her mind and suddenly it all came back.

Nicole was in danger, they were hurting her. Leaping out of her rickety desk chair, Waverly almost sprinted out of the room but stopped herself when she remembered something else.

Something worse.

The creature.

That’s right. It was inside of her. She sensed its presence, but it felt distant, weak.

She had to hurry.

Before leaving the room Waverly grabbed a lantern, calmed herself, and plastered on the most neutral expression she could muster.

She walked briskly down the corridor, refusing to make eye contact with any of the revenants. The creature considered them lesser. And they had to think it was in control.

 

_Which door was is it?_ _Oh right!_ Next to the stairwell. She undid the locks and quickly slipped inside.

The windowless room was pitch black and freezing. She switched the lantern on, and almost cried.

Red hair poked out from underneath a thick blanket, which moved slightly from shallow breaths.  Waverly approached slowly, she knew what was going to be under the blanket, knew what her girlfriend was going to look like, but she wasn’t ready to see it herself.

She dropped to her knees next to the covered lump, hesitated for a moment then cautiously pulled back the blanket.

Waverly didn’t even know she was crying until she watched teardrops fall onto her girlfriend’s back, her bruised, bloodied back. Nicole was face down on the concrete floor, her hands bound with zip ties. Waverly didn’t want to see what was on the other side, she didn’t want to be reminded of what she couldn’t stop.

Gently, she flipped Nicole onto her back, somehow her torso managed to look worse; mottled with a disgusting array of injuries but the burns...

She forced the memory back, instead focusing on Nicole’s face; which didn’t look any better with caked blood and colorfully ugly bruises. Nicole stirred, moaning and coughing before opening an eye.

“Hi baby.” Waverly greeted tearfully as she stroked Nicole’s dirty hair.

Eyes focused now, Nicole looked up at Waverly, at her smiling face, and weakly shook her head, “No.”

“What?” Waverly said confused, she tried stroke Nicole’s cheek but the woman recoiled at the touch.

“No.” She said with more force, her breathing had picked up.

“Honey please, we don’t have time.” Waverly watched as Nicole wiggled away.

Nicole shook her head again, “No... not you... not stupid.” she replied nearly panting from exertion.

Waverly’s heart sank, _she’s thinks I’m not in control._ “No baby please it’s me, I...” how was she supposed convince Nicole it was her talking? “I can’t explain it, it’s me right now, but we have to hurry.”

Nicole whimpered, clearly conflicted, “Wave?”

“Yes, yes.” She wanted to cry again, though Nicole still looked skeptical.

“I don’t know when it’s coming back,” she had to talk fast, “They have a couple of vans parked out front, I can get the keys and sneak us out of basement they don’t have spotlights yet. I just need more time.”

Nicole whined, Waverly felt awful. Waiting would mean more pain, but there was nothing she could do right now, not without screwing them both.

“No honey please, I—” A stabbing pain in her head stopped her cold. _Oh no_. She crawled away from Nicole as the pained worsened, blurring her vision. Collapsing on the ground, she held her head, it was the creature. She tried to fight it back, “No,” she groaned, “Not ye—” Her sentence was cut short by an inhuman laugh.

Frightened, Nicole whispered, “Wave?”

“Not here right now.” A deep unearthly voice answered. Waverly turned revealing black eyes, Nicole gasped and tried to wiggle away from the possessed woman.

“Oh no you don’t!” It scurried across the floor as quick as a spider, grabbing Nicole’s face and lifting her up, laughing as she cried and pleaded incoherently.

“What did she tell you!” It shouted, “What did she say tell me!”

Nicole refused to speak so it dropped her, head smashing into the ground causing little stars to fill her vision.

“Well no matter,” It straightened out the dress Waverly had on, “they’ll just fry it out of you.” It sat for a moment, regarding the helpless woman in front of it. Then it smiled.

“I still sense her presence, I wonder...” It ran its hands up and down Nicole’s torso, “How would the littlest Earp feel if I had,” a hand shot down to Nicole’s waistline and fiddled with her pants button, “a little fun?”

Nicole closed her eyes, she didn’t want to watch a demon with Waverly’s face do something so disgusting. It backhanded her, “You will watch!”

“You could fuck off maybe?” She said gritting her teeth.

“Well,” it caressed her cheek, “I was going to be gentle... was.”

 

Pinned behind wooden crates, surrounded by deafening gunfire, Wynonna listened as bullets whizzed past ricocheting off the brick wall behind her.

“I though she said there were like two people here!” Wynonna shouted at Linda, who was equally pinned a couple crates down.

“You ever hear that saying about military intelligence being an oxymoron?” She shouted back.

“Oh god damn it!” They were told that a couple of revenants had been using an abandoned slaughter house as a hideout. It was emphasized to them that there would only be two men in the

building.

That was a damn dirty lie. The place was crawling with people. Apparently more than just revenants had decided to take up residence there.

_Damn you Ugly Mick!_

It didn’t help that their back up was taking their sweet ass time too. Wynonna and Linda had yet to get a shot in while Dolls and Doc were having limited success. The worst part about the situation was they now had no clue if their targets were even still in the building.

It was now going on ten minutes since Linda called in a code two hundred. They weren’t that far out from Purgatory.

Then her phone beeped. It was Tom, they were going in through the side, draw some of the heat off them.

“Thank little baby Jesus, we’ve been saved. Back up’s here!” Wynonna exclaimed, Linda did a little victory shimmy, earning her a disapproving stare from Dolls, which she ignored.

Gunfire erupted out back drawing some of the men away. The remaining men were thankfully, dumb as fuck and kept popping out from behind their cover. Wynonna rationalized that they were torn over staying or going back to help. That had to be it.

The group was now able to break cover and move on them. As Wynonna approached a man who’d just run out of ammo, Peacemaker glowed a fiery orange.

Realizing the jig was up, his blue eyes burned red in defiance. “Go ahead cunt!” He growled.

Pointing Peacemaker at his head, “So how about you start making your peace?” She said giving him a wry smile.

“What’s a matter,” he said suddenly donning a mock frown, “you miss your little friend Nicky?”

That wiped the smile right off her face, he watched her hands start shake and her face contort with anger.

“Oh you know about that? She replied quietly.

“Heard some things, word travels fast in our circles.”

“Well then,” She pulled back the hammer, “I hope when you get back down there, Satan is waiting for you with his pitchfork,” he cocked his head, confused as to where she was taking her threat, “and shoves it right up your ass, no lube”

Utterly baffled, he exclaimed, “What?” before she fired Peacemaker and watched as he descended into hell with the look of sheer confusion plastered on his face.

“You uh, handled that better than I expected.” Dolls said as he came up behind her.

She continued to stare pensively at the charred circle on the floor. “I had a few things I wanted to say, but I held my tongue. Wasn’t going to let him get the last laugh though.”

Dolls nodded absently as he reloaded his gun, “He could’ve had information.” He stopped himself from pointing out her obvious poor judgement, Nicole was a sore enough subject as it was.

“He was a Bobo loyalist, I honestly doubt it—” The hard pounding of feet on tile interrupted her. A man burst through the doors leading to dry storage stopping short in front of Wynonna and Dolls. Not even remotely out of breath, his calm breathing gave away his revenant status.

“Ok,” Wynonna starts, holstering Peacemaker and folding her arms over her chest, “do you know where Jojo Svane is?”

Glowering, the man threw his arms up in the air, “How the fuck should I know?”

Wynonna turned to Dolls, he didn’t look at her but he could feel the smugness she was radiating.

He tried to hide his irritation “Fine whatever.”

“Alright cool, make your peace bitch.” Before he could say anything else a fiery pit opened and swallowed him up.

Dolls sighed, she turned to him, “What?”

“You’re just something else.”

 

Armed with a bag of “necessary prisoner supplies” from Walmart, Jojo marched down the corridor leading to the room they were keeping Nicole in. With his face plastered on wanted posters all over the triangle, it was hard for him to get out and do any shopping. His human familiars really came through for him.

Wipes, water, nutrition bars, first aid crap, they got it all. Plus a new green turtle neck that went great with his slate grey khakis.

He felt fantastic. He undid the locks to the room and nearly skipped into the room. His mood however, fouled the moment he laid eyes on his prisoner. Nicole, no longer under the blanket, was lying on her side curled up crying softly.

As he stepped in front of her, she looked up briefly only to start shaking and cry harder.

“What the hell happened to you?” He asked crouching down. He noticed scratch marks on her neck... and bite marks? Her pants were undone too god damn it.

“Who did this?” No, this was unacceptable. They all agreed not to do this shit, who was idiotic enough to renege? “Who did this?” He asked more firmly.

She just shook her head. Exasperated, he picked her up by her hair, eyes burning he growled, “Who!”

“She’s not a stool pigeon.”

Jojo looked up to find Waverly at the door smirking. He tossed Nicole aside as he stood, “You, it was you.” She just looked so pleased with herself it disgusted him.

“I’ve not been enjoying myself around here,” the creature replied in Waverly’s now sickeningly cheery voice, “so I thought I’d entertain myself.”

It what? “You want entertainment get a Gameboy.” Jojo spat.

“They’re called DS’s now.” It shot back indignantly.

“Don’t really give a fuck.”

“No, no, no, no, no Joseph you don’t understand,” it crossed the room to where he was standing, and yanked him down to eye level by the collar, “this is my operation, I call the shots, and I will do what I want.” It threw him back and briskly exited the room.

He staggered to his feet, dusting himself off he turned to find Nicole unconscious, “Oh damnit.” Shouldn’t have thrown her. Taking the wipes out of the bag, he tried to look on the positive side; at least he wasn’t going to have to fight her to clean her up.

 

There were no celebratory drinks at Shorty’s that night, Wynonna wrote up her report, _gag_ , and headed home. Dolls and Doc were going to stay behind and hitch a ride back later.

Gus was in the living room watching the news when she walked through the door. “That you Wynonna?”

“Yeah it’s me.” She tossed her jacket on the table and undid her boots, kicking them off and not giving a fuck where they landed.

She heard Gus sigh as the boots clattered to the floor, “Whatcha watchin’?” She asked as she plopped down on the other side of the couch.

“Ten o’clock news dear.”

“Anything good happen in this shithole world today?” She asked bitterly.

Gus scoffed, “If something did, they certainly didn’t show it.”

“’Course, would ruin the narrative.”

They didn’t talk much during the broadcast, but during a commercial Gus turned to Wynonna, “I don’t know if you heard the news yet,” Wynonna’s sharp head turn, gave her a bit of a start, she continued after she caught her breath, “since clearly you didn’t, Nedley told me that Nicole’s landlord asked him to move out her stuff since rent’s due and she’s not there.”

Wynonna let out a morose little chuckle, “Always money with these pricks.”

Gus nodded solemnly in agreement, “Her ex and son will be there on Saturday, we can take the furniture if we want it.”

“We could use that furniture,” Wynonna mused, “it’s nice shit.”

“Really Wyn? That’s your friend.”

The censure in Gus’s voice had Wynonna feeling the heat of embarrassment, she wondered if she was showing any of it. “Didn’t mean any malice by it,” she replied quickly hoping to pacify Gus’s sudden anger, “was joking a lil’ bit.”

Gus sighed deeply, “It’s not something you joke about. I’m going to bed.”

Wynonna watched her leave. It really wasn’t, she wanted to say if she didn’t joke she’d eat Peacemaker, but Gus wouldn’t understand.

Plus Nicole really did have nice furniture.

About to get up from the couch, Wynonna stopped as she heard the pattering of little feet and stared bewildered as Calamity Jane entered the living room and hopped up on the couch.

“The hell cat, I thought you got dumped at Nedley’s?” Wynonna asked the orange puff ball as she kneaded a pillow.

“He can’t have her she’s mine.” Gus said gruffly as she reentered the room to grab her reading glasses.

“Oh but you bitch at me about furniture jokes?” Wynonna asked bitterly.

“Yes, deal with my hypocrisy.” Gus retorted.

Wynonna threw up her arms startling the cat; who bolted out of the living room. Gus hmphed as she headed back upstairs. _Fine whatever, fuck all of you._ Wynonna thought to herself as she skulked off to bed in an even pissier mood than when she arrived.

 

“Earp, Earp.” A distant voice called to her as she ran from Barney the dinosaur in Purgatory High. “Earp!”

She nearly jumped out of the bed, “Wow ok… what a dream?” It was a dream right?

As she flopped back down she realized the source of the other voice was standing beside the bed and looked up to find Dolls staring curiously down at her. He looked snazzy in black trousers and a deep blue sweater.

“You ok?” He asked giving her a quizzical smile.

She waved him off, “Yeah, yeah just dreamin’ ‘bout high school.”

“Alright cool, briefing’s at eight, Gus is making breakfast. Doc ruined the coffee.”

She groaned loudly, “Fuck you John Henry Holliday!” She shouted as she climbed out of bed.

She heard Doc’s raspy laugh from the kitchen, “Dickbag,” she muttered under her breath, “alright beat it jerk, I’m gonna get dressed.” Dolls left her to it.

She settled on a warm grey cable knit, blue jeans, and boots. Nicole had left a nice pair of brown leather boots that stopped mid-calf, but apparently the woman was big foot, dashing her buttery brown leather dreams.

 

“Vampires?” Wynonna shouted down the conference table at Lucado, who was sporting yet another funereal skirt suit.

Her heels clicked as she rounded the table to confront the coffee guzzling interrupter at the end of the table. “Yes vampires, you hunt supernatural creatures do you not?” Wynonna stood as Lucado got to her chair.

“No,” Wynonna replied with an intelligence insulting inflection in her voice, “I’m the Earp heir to the Earp curse which consists of sending demon outlaws back to hell. No vampires required.”

Lucado got too into her personal space and said, “Well too fucking bad, you work for me now.” She spun around and put distance between them before Wynonna could do something dumb like answer with her fists. The infuriated look on her face sure made it seem like she sure wanted to.

Lucado went back to the board, after noticing Wynonna hadn’t moved she shouted, “You have vampires to stake Earp! So get to it!”

Dolls, observing from the doorway, thanked every god imaginable that Wynonna didn’t stamp her feet like a little girl. As Wynonna passed him, Lucado gave him an insanely annoyed stare. He poker faced like a champ and nodded before leaving.

And him, her and Doc went to the south side of town and staked some damn vampires.

And not one of them was Dracula. What a fuckin’ gyp.  

 

That evening while Wynonna was trying not climb out a window/type her report, Lucado entered the office and quietly took a seat beside her. Wynonna glanced over at her, she had a thick file in her hand and serious expression on her face.

“’Sup?” Wynonna asked.

“Wynonna, I need to talk to you.” She looked concerned and an uneasy feeling started gnawing at Wynonna.

“Alright shoot.” As she said that she heard the door open again, Doc and Dolls took seats on the other side of the table.

They weren’t sniping each other… oh no.

“Wynonna, I got the results back on the sample you took a few weeks back,” her entire demeanor was off, she wasn’t callous or arrogant in the slightest, “we actually know what this creature is.”

She would have been happy if Lucado didn’t look so damn upset. “Ok? That’s great! Why you all acting like this is an intervention or some shit?”

“It actually has a name despite what it’s told you,” she watched Wynonna’s face scrunch up in confusion and gave her a small smile, “yeah, it’s a liar. An excellent one too. Its name is Mictian.”

“Oh I wish I could tell Nic.”

Doc laughed, “I don’t know after the fit she threw over that book, it would probably just make her more pissed.”

Wynonna nodded, “True, true.” Dolls still sat with a grim expression, Lucado was only giving them the weakest of smiles.

“This demon,” Lucado said after they finished their exchange, “is parasitic in nature, it only seeks to possess as many hosts as it can, spread itself as far as it can.” She paused for a moment, “It doesn’t have telekinetic abilities, it can’t teleport,” she raised her hands at Wynonna, “it can’t communicate through dreams like you’ve reported.”

That uneasiness began to spread, and Wynonna started to feel numb. “What are you saying?”

It was Dolls that spoke this time, “When you guys were little did anything unexplainable ever happen when Waverly was angry, like lights flickering, stuff falling for no reason?”

“Uhhh, no? What are you guys getting at?” That numbness was starting to turn to pangs of dread.

Lucado hesitated for a moment before saying, “These powers may be coming from Waverly.”

Wynonna didn’t have a chance to smother the laugh that escaped her lips, but nobody laughed with her. She looked around, “Oh come on, yeah— ok, sure. So what, her Hogwarts letter got lost in the mail?”

No one said anything. “So we got some Charmed shit going on is that what you’re saying?”

Exasperated, Lucado sarcastically replied, “Yes Piper that’s exactly what I’m saying, Phoebe’s a witch.”

Wynonna’s eyes narrowed at the file on the table, “So what, you gonna make me find her so you could chop her up like you did with Mick?”

“What?”

“No.” Dolls answered, “Black Badge has decades of experience with people like Waverly, that file is just test results and containment suggestions.”

Wynonna surged to her feet, sending the chair rolling back, “You want to contain my sister? For what? Fuck you people!”

“No you presumptuous moron,” Lucado shouted back as she stood, “it’s so we can separate her from Mictian.”

“I don’t trust you!” Wynonna exclaimed as she stormed out of the room.

Lucado sighed and sat back in the chair, “Will one of you please talk to her?”

Doc nodded, “I’ll give her some time to cool then I’ll go talk some sense in her.”

“Thank you Mr. Holliday.” She said wearily.

 

Wynonna retreated outside to the back of the building where some of the deputies would take their cigarette breaks. She found Tom on a bench just staring off into space.

“Mind if I join you?” She asked as she sat.

He jumped a bit but said, “Not at all.” He felt fingers dig into his pockets for his pack of Newport 100s, “Just help yourself.” He said, annoyed.

As she mumbled curses and bitched about the cold after her first drag he realized, _oh they must have told her._ “I guess you were informed.”

She just looked at him, “They told you about my sister before they told me.”

There was acid in her voice, so Tom chose his next words carefully, “Not technically, Mr. Holliday was out here bitching to himself and I was just curious. So he continued bitchin’ at me.”

She hmphed and took another drag, “’Course he would.”

“At least we know what it is.” He said, trying to placate her anger.

“Yeah… yeah.” She couldn’t argue with that. That was big.

“They haven’t made any breakthroughs on Mr. Runes yet?”

“Is that what they’re calling him now?”

Tom stubbed out his butt and stood, “Most of us anyway.” Wynonna was still seated, a perturbed look still about her so he tried something else, “Would it really be so bad if Waverly could do magic?”

She gave him a wry smile, “I wonder if she knows.”

Puzzled Tom asked, “Who, what?”

“Waverly,” Wynonna said, stubbing out her own cig, “I wonder if she knows those magic tricks are coming from her?”

“Hmm, maybe if she has any control still.”

Yeah, big if. Tom started for the door, motioning for her to follow, she shook her head in a polite decline and he headed in without her.

A few minutes passed before Doc joined her.

“Ah so he snitched on me, did he?” Wynonna asked as a greeting when he sat next to her.

“Who Officer Miller?” He clamped his smile down and said, “Nah, just knew you were out here.”

He didn’t say anything after that, she seemed to have mostly calmed down so they just sat together quietly in the chilly January air.

“I don’t want them to hurt her.”

“Nobody’s going to let that happen.” She sniffed loudly, sensing a strong cry was about to happen, Doc took her hand in his, “She is not going to end up like that sad ugly mick bastard.”

Tears flowed, but that was all. Doc _highly_ doubted Waverly was going to end up vivisectioned on a metal slab, but he feared what Black Badge would try to make her do with those new found powers, or what would happen should she decline. He felt Wynonna let go of his hand, and missed the contact instantly.

“I have to put him down.”

“What?”

Wynonna smiled apologetically and wiped her eyes, “Sorry, lost in thought, Mick. I just realized I gotta put him down.”

Doc chuckled humorlessly, “That’s a hell of a thing to think about. Suppose it would be a mercy killing though.”

“Gonna be in hell either way.” Wynonna murmured as she stood, and held out a hand for Doc which he graciously accepted. She couldn’t dwell, not yet anyway. She had that damn report to finish.

 

Doc decided to finally try his hand at bartending that night, which left Dolls and Wynonna alone at the homestead.

Alone in her room, Wynonna contemplated nicking one of Nicole’s pills to help her sleep when a knock on the door frame pulled her from her thoughts. Dolls stood in a pair of grey flannel lounge pants and a white shirt. “Hi.”

She sighed, “Hi yourself.”

“Well I uh, just came in to say good night.” He looked a bit uncomfortable, but that was probably just because she had no pants on. “So night.”

He turned to leave, “Wait.” Her mouth said before her brain could shut it up. He waited. “You could stay you know.” And now her brain was betraying her. His eyes widened, “Please?” God damn mouth and its pleas.

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “I guess, I mean if that’s what you want?”

“Yes.” She said it so quickly she could have sworn she imagined herself saying it, except he answered.

“Alright.”

He walked around to the other side of the bed and cautiously pulled the covers back to get in. They sat, staring at each other for all of point two seconds before Wynonna grabbed him by the ears, yanking him in for a hard kiss. Pushing him down, she got on top of him and continued it.

“What’s happening?” Doll’s asked breathlessly as they broke contact.

“Fuck me.” She growled.

His eyes nearly bugged out of his head, _what the hell?_ “Now? Right now?”

“Yes.” She hissed.

He felt himself get hard and wanted to smack it back to its unaroused state, with everything going on sex was the last thing he was thinking about.

But these words came falling out of his fool mouth instead, “Uh, yeah, sure… you got— you got some protection?”

Wynonna leaned over and yanked the nightstand drawer open.

He peered in and said, “Well ok then.”

 

At two-thirty in the morning Doc and Gus pulled up to the homestead. Grateful, Doc jumped out dashed to the door leaving Gus to bitch about being retired. He unlocked the door and kicked off his boots. Oddly the lights were still on in most of the rooms, except Wynonna’s room.

And Dolls was nowhere to be found.

Curiosity got the better of him, and like creep he peeked into Wynonna’s room. He saw the dark skin of a muscled arm, backing away quietly, his heart sank.

He felt like an idiot, but wasn’t quite sure as to why. It’s not like they were ever together in first place.

It was just sex. Just sex. That was what he kept telling himself as he stripped off his clothes and crawled under the blankets on the couch.

 

The following morning Wynonna awoke to an empty bed and the smell of pancakes. Of course Dolls would be up and dressed before her, he probably didn’t even need sleep. She quickly threw on some clothes and headed into the kitchen.

That was a mistake, as soon as she saw Dolls’s piercing glare she wanted to turn around and run out the door. He was sitting, dressed in a maroon sweater and black pants gripping his coffee cup such force, his glare; thankfully wasn’t directed at her. But instead the table’s other occupant, Doc.

Doc, it seems was returning expression equally.

She felt like she was tip-toeing to the coffee pot, exchanging a harried look with Gus before grabbing a cup.

The tension at the table was suffocating, the two men silently sipping coffee while tossing venomous glares at each other. Doc was dressed in red flannel, dark blue jeans, and his old boots. He looked so hillbilly to Dolls’s city chic.

Doc broke his gaze with Dolls and turned to her, “Mornin’ Wynonna.” He said, giving her an awkward smile.

She smiled back and he gave her arm a quick rub. That was another mistake. Dolls’s eyes widened, his head tilted in bewilderment. Doc shot him a childish little grin and she just couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Alright!” She shouted, startling everyone. “This is going to stop today.” She jabbed a finger at Doc, “Are we dating?” He shook his head, she turned to Dolls, “Well?” he shook his head.

“Ok so nobody’s dating and you two are acting like you fucking own me! You don’t own me it was just sex!” She screamed at both of them.

She hadn’t expected to get so worked up, but the tremors wouldn’t stop. And neither could her tongue, “I don’t get why with everything fucking happening, you two choose have to make this a fucking issue right now!”

She then realized Gus was had been standing beside about to serve the food, her stomach soured. “I can’t eat, I can’t—”   

Wynonna stood abruptly and stormed out of the kitchen. A few moments late they heard the door slam.

Speechless, the two men sat stunned before turning to Gus, who just shook her head and waved the spatula at them, “Nope, you fucked in that bed, so you sure as hell are going to lie in it.”

They both looked mortified, but that was their own faults. Gus turned back to the stove, “What am I going to do with this goddamn food?”

“We’ll uh, take it to the station. Someone will eat it.” Dolls replied gruffly.

“Someone better.”

 

In a cold room, Nicole stood hunched over in the middle of the room with her arms tied to opposite walls. Her whole body was racked with pain, but standing, they had brought the torch back out and charred the soles of her feet which made standing agonizing.

Corey paced back and forth in front of her while Clem stood behind her. In his hand, Corey held a police baton, probably the one from her utility belt. Thieving prick.

“So we’re going to play a little game,” he set a kitchen timer on the table in front of her, “I’m gonna set it, and you have to stay standing until the ding or you get the shocks.” His smile was so heinous, “Or maybe I get the torch.”

That was entirely unfair. She was in so much pain, one hit was going to send her to her knees.

He was probably counting on that. Bastard.

“How about you just shove it up your ass?” She replied, chuckling. His smile dropped and she wanted to slap herself for pissing him off.

“Cute,” he said as twirled the baton around, “but you’re going to regret it.” He set the timer to five minutes. With no warning he struck her in the side.

She cried out and her knees buckled. He did it again, she grunted in pain and almost sank to the floor.

He tsked when she caught herself.

Then something hit her back, catching her off guard. Clem had struck her with something wooden.

She wasn’t going to make five minutes.

“You play dirtier than I do.”

Nicole recognized Waverly’s voice, but she was hunched over and in too much pain to lift her head so she only saw legs and feet in the doorway. Chunky heeled shoes and black skinny jeans made their way over to her.  

She had already been shaking, but it seemed to worsen with every step Waverly took towards her.

She stopped in front of Nicole, who could now see that she was wearing some sort of midriff exposing shirt. “My poor baby.” It said softly in Waverly’s voice. Nicole had to swallow bile as it ran Waverly’s fingers through her tangled hair.

“You done interfering?” Corey asked impatiently.

“I was never stopping you.” It replied coolly.

“Well in that case.” Corey struck Nicole again.

The pain, too unbearable, sent her to her knees. She cried out in pain and frustration. The men laughed as the creature cradled her head against soft exposed skin. Nicole wondered how she could be so warm in this icebox of a building.

She smelt so nice too, a subdued floral scent Nicole could just barely detect with her busted nose.

“Looks like it’s the shocks for you, girly.” Corey said smugly.

The creature sighed, and pulled Nicole closer as she wept, “You’re getting me all wet sweetie.” It said, voice still so soft and comforting as it wiped tears and blood from Waverly’s stomach.

“You gonna let go? Imma shock you too if you don’t.”

“Fine.” It replied, letting go of Nicole. With one last swipe at the muck the creature left the room.

Nicole cried harder, “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave–” she mumbled repeatedly to Waverly’s retreating back.

“It ain’t listening bitch.” Corey growled before jabbing her with a cattle prod.

Outside, the creature listened to her screams, for its own delight, but more for the littlest Earp; who was still clinging consciousness and fighting it every moment. She was as stubborn as that ginger bitch.

Then its head began to throb, _damn little Earp bitch!_ It sank to its knees in agony as it fought for control. Constance, chanced upon it in the hall as she was making her way back to her room.

“Do you need aspirin?” She asked, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice.

Snarling at her only caused the smile on her face to widen. “Yes please,” it staggered to its feet, “continue to mock me.” The pain had subsided and Waverly kept at bay, “And I’ll see to it you go back to the salt flats.”

Constance just snorted and rolled her eyes, “Oh Mictian,” she smiled as she watched Waverly’s hazel eyes widen in shock, “that’s right. I know what you are.” She closed the gap between them, her face just millimeters from Mictian’s, “And I know how to get rid of you too.”

The little arrogance Mictian had left drained away. “I see.” It replied softly. This wasn’t good. If the witch knew, then surely all of the others did as well. The power it had over them was gone.

Or maybe they were just humoring it all along.

 

Saturday rolled around. Wynonna sat in Nicole's bedroom rummaging through boxes while Doc and Tom loaded the furniture into two pickups.

For some reason, Abby thought it was smart to bring Nicholas along. All the boy did was sit in the corner and cry on his mother's helmet.

Should have left him at her parents'.

They had worked quick, the apartment was barren spare for a few boxes in the bedroom.

Wynonna sat against the wall where the bed used to be flipping through a wedding photo album. She'd stopped on a photo of Abby and Nicole. They were cutting an elegant looking cake with some kind of sword, Nicole was in her service dress uniform with a chest full of medals sporting the goofiest grin she’d ever seen while Abby looked beautiful in a strapless white gown.

“So this is what you’ve been up to.”

Wynonna looked up to find Abby staring down at her.

“Sorry I uh, just got carried away.”

Abby waved it off and sat down beside her. She looked much more composed than the last time Wynonna saw her, wearing a nicely ironed blue button up with khakis and white sneakers.

“Oh,” She took the album from Wynonna, and motioned for Nicholas join them, “the same sex marriage ban’s repeal had just gone into effect.” She smiled sadly as Nicholas cuddled up against her, “Nicole found out she was getting deployed in August.” She brushed a finger over Nicole’s face in the photo, “The fifth to be exact. I’ve never organized anything so fast in my life.” She said with a laugh.

Flipping the page to another photo, Abby smiled wryly at Wynonna, “Just after the repeal, military chaplains were announcing that they weren’t marrying any _queers_ , so we couldn’t use the base’s chapel, and it was _way_ too short notice to rent anything fancy. So we got married in her CO’s backyard, with her damn brother as the minister.”

The photo was of her, Nicole, and red-haired man in a minister’s outfit who looked suspiciously like Nicole. “I’m guessing that’s the brother?”

Abby nodded, “Yep, Wesley.”

This was new information. Her brother was as attractive as she was. “So she’s got a brother.” Wynonna repeated, wondering if anyone had called him yet.

“And a sister.”

“Auntie Haley.” Nicholas interjected, glumly.

Surprised by the tone in his voice Wynonna asked him, “She no good or somethin’?”

Abby scoffed, “Hand me the green album.”

Wynonna complied and Abby flipped to a page with a photo of Nicole, Wesley, and another servicemember who she assumed to be Haley posing in front of the Petawawa military base’s sign.

“Shit they look like triplets. She military too?” Haley looked exactly like Nicole, only taller… and meaner.

“Yep, Navy though. She’s five years older than Nic, Wes is three.”

“Ok.” Not really all that important.

“And the most homophobic c-word I have ever met.”

“What?” Wynonna exclaimed, a little louder than she meant to.

“Oh yeah.” Abby shut the book and tossed it in the box. “For our wedding, she sent a letter saying how disappointed she was with us, and a bible.”

Nicholas blew a raspberry, Wynonna high-fived him as Abby sighed, “So when Nic deployed,” she continued, “she sent her back pictures of goats doing it.”

“What?” Both Wynonna and Nicholas exclaimed.

“Uh-huh. Didn’t hear from her again until a few months after Nick was born.”

“What did she send this time, seven hundred club membership?”

Abby let out a noise that reminded Wynonna of an air break, “Just some baby clothes.”

“Guess she learned her lesson.”

“Oh I doubt it, she barely acknowledges him.”

Wynonna was about to say something rude about this woman when Tom entered the room, “Ah so this is where you’ve all been. I’m all set to go.”

“Right.” Wynonna had forgotten about Tom during Abby’s trip down memory lane. “I guess we should go.”

Abby stood, “You mind helping me with these boxes Tom?”

“Not at all.” They left with boxes tow, leaving Wynonna alone with Nicholas.

“Wynonna?” He stood, holding his mother’s helmet.

The smile that was on his face had vanished, “What’s up buddy?”

He avoided eye contact, preferring to look at the helmet, “Is my mom dead?”

Ah shit, Wynonna wanted to say absolutely not, but that would be lying. She honestly had no idea. It had been three weeks with only one solid lead to tug.

“I, I don’t know,” tears had started pooling in his eyes, Christ he was too young to have to deal with this, she knelt down, placing her hands on his little shoulders, “but I do know that everyone is out there right now looking. We got the whole department, Mounties, the Americans,” he looked surprised, “that’s right even Americans. Plus you got me and my big scary gun.”

He giggled, she wiped the tears that were falling with her thumbs and pulled him in for a hug. “I’m gonna find her Nick, I’m going to do everything I can.”

 

Dolls had elected to stay at the station that day. He didn’t really know Nicole well enough to go traipsing through her apartment to take her stuff, that and he flat out refused to be around Doc. Childish bastard.

Standing at the white board in the BBD office, his eyes had been stuck on Nicole’s department photo for what seemed like ages. Every time he went to look away, his eyes came right back to the uniformed woman.

She had to be dead by now, there was no way they’d keep her alive. But voicing his thoughts would probably destroy Wynonna, he knew how guilty she felt. So for now he’d just keep quiet.

“Xavier.”

Tensing immediately, he turned to find Lucado at the door. He hadn’t lied to Wynonna when he said he was trained to deal with captivity and torture, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to pretend that it didn’t affect him at all.

“Ma’am.”

She crossed the room to join him at the board, “My superiors have informed me that our linguistics team has made progress with those Runic spells, they want to head out into the Barrens for testing.” She noticed he was tense, but decided it wasn’t a conversation worth pursuing. She knew why he was on edge, and he was just going to have to get over it.

“That is excellent news.” He replied. His eyes had gone back to Nicole’s photo, “I’ll inform the others when I see them later today.”

“You think she’s dead.”

“I uh,” that completely caught him off guard, was he that obvious, “I don’t think they’d have any reason to keep her alive at this point.” His shoulders sagged, “She didn’t know anything Jeannie.”

She seemed to ease up as well, her expression softening slightly, “For the record I agree, but recovering Deputy Haught isn’t our only objective, we still have to find Mictian and separate it from Waverly, and capture this Joseph Svane character.”

Phrasing it that way made it seem like Nicole was only a means to an end. But it was true, it didn’t matter if she was alive or dead, Mictian was Black Badge’s main objective. A dangerous cancer that needed to be eradicated before it could spread.

He nodded in agreement, they were quiet a moment before she said, “Alright I’m heading back to the city, I’ll email you the updates.”

He didn’t watch her leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking of turning guest comments on again provided y'all keep your Tumblr drama on Tumblr.  
> Yay season 3 next week!!!!


	14. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang finally closes in on Jojo's location.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dedicate this chapter to the poorly written and oft ignored character Xavier Dolls.

Dolls returned to the homestead that evening, he found the front door propped open and Gus and Doc arguing by the barn, apparently over a couch. Inside, he found Wynonna humming to herself as she set up a TV and surround system. She looked so happy, it actually upset him.

“We haven’t even found a body yet.” He said bitterly.

Startled, Wynonna jumped a bit, “Didn’t hear you come in.” He looked bewildered. She looked at the TV in front of her and suddenly felt ashamed.

“Y’all really couldn’t wait, damn.”

“Well _when_ we find her, she’s going to have to live here anyway.” Wynonna replied indignantly.

“Yeah sure.” She didn’t meet his eyes, her face had turned a light red from embarrassment. “Anyways, our linguists have made some progress and are set to start testing, I have a copy of the report for you.”

“Oh, well, well that’s good news.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna shower get some food.”

As he turned to leave she asked, “Are we ever going to talk about you know…”

He looked her over, her shoulders were hunched up, arms pulled close to her sides, still refused to meet his eyes. No, he didn’t want to talk about that, they hadn’t been avoiding each other so much as they’d only been interacting at the station. Where there were others to ensure they’d never have the time.

“Maybe when all this is over.” He replied tersely, exiting the living room before she could say anything else.

“’Kay then.” She murmured. She’d lost all enthusiasm for the entertainment system in front of her. 

Dolls avoided her for the rest of the night, Doc however sat with her in the kitchen and read through the report with her.

On two tablets, the pair split the report with Doc taking containment while she took the spells. They also split a bottle of Jack, at her insistence. She didn’t want to look like an alcoholic after all.

After powering through a dozen pages, Wynonna never knew there could be so many spells for concealment; not only were there generic spells, some could only be done at night, on a full moon, in the spring, on the ninth of February, and by somebody named Alfarin.

“We’re never going to find them.” She whispered as she buried her face in the crook of her arm.

“Why do you say that?” Doc asked.

She propped her head on her arm, “Did you know, that there is a spell that only some dude named Alfarin–een, I dunno, can do; but he’s been dead for six hundred years.”

Doc’s eyebrows shot up, “Well let’s dig his ass up, we got shit to do.”

Wynonna had to laugh, “What about you, what have you gleaned from this highly informative report?”

Doc snorted at highly informative, “Well, they need a blood sample from Waverly to determine if she’s light magic or dark magic—”

Dumbfounded, Wynonna interrupted, “They can DNA test for that?”

He shrugged and scrunched up his face, “I guess, anyway since they don’t know what kind she is they don’t know what to trap her with, or if this Mictian fella would be able to,” he stopped mid-sentence to pull the tablet closer to his face, “dampen, hinder, or outright negate any attempts at containment,” he put the tablet back down, “further study is necessary.”

“Necessary my ass just get some salt and spooky crystals it’ll be fine.”

“Waverly is not the Stone Witch.” He countered seriously.

Well of course not, her hands went up in concession, “Fine, but I still don’t know why it has to be so damn complicated.”

“Magic is complicated.” He said before taking a sip of his whiskey.

“Apparently.” She downed the rest of the whiskey in her glass before pouring another.

“Well it says here, one method for trapping light magic witches is to set up some obsidian crystals to form a square, it creates an energy barrier once the witch steps inside,” he scrolled a bit before continuing, “then, it says here, to carry selenite crystals that have hair from the witch wrapped around it into the barrier; this drains their powers.”

Wynonna lips thinned in disgust, “Because that’s going to be easy to do.”

Doc continued undeterred, “And they got whole damn recipe for dealin’ with Mictian. You wouldn’t happen to have any Sandalwood lyin’ around would ya?”

Wynonna groaned, “This is so hard.”

“Hey at least we didn’t have to gather all this ourselves.”

True, the amount of data Black Badge compiled in less than a week probably would have taken them months on their own. Wynonna just nodded and reburied her face.

Morning came entirely too sudden. Wynonna spent most of her short slumber dreaming about crystal shopping on Ebay. She wondered why as she got out of bed. Wouldn’t that be Lucado’s job? 

 

The BBD office was a zoo, Wynonna, who actually wanted to concentrate this time begged Tom to let her on Nicole’s computer. It didn’t take much convincing, in moments she was running names in the CPIC.

Dolls, on his way back from the breakroom, stopped in front of the desk, “Who let you on here?” He said, pointing to Nicole’s computer monitor.

“Tom.” She answered innocently.

“Why.” He asked, dragging out the word.

“Because I wanted to get into the system to scrap my juvie records.” She replied with a sly grin.

His eyes nearly bugged out of his head, he jabbed a finger at her and was about to say something when she cut him off, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding chill. I’d need to break into the commissioner’s office for that, I’m just running names and shit.”

“You’re gonna give me an aneurism.” He said before trudging back into the BBD office.

At least he was talking to her, she thought.

Wynonna had been sitting at Nicole’s desk for an hour or so running license plate and printing reports, when her stapler stopped stapling she started rummaging through the desk drawers. Instead of staples, she found a little phone that looked maybe ten years out of style. She tried turning it on, but it was out of juice.

The charger was in the drawer thank Christ. She plugged it in and waited a minute before turning it on.

She fifty unread messages. All of them from someone labeled 2. “Fuck it.” Let’s throw caution to the wind, she called the number.

Someone answered it after a few rings, “Nic? Puta, where have you been?” The voice was feminine and accented, possibly Hispanic.

“Uhh, it’s not Nic.” Wynonna answered hesitantly.

There was a brief pause before the woman said, “I’m hanging up.”

“No wait please!” Wynonna nearly screamed into the phone, “I’m Nicole’s friend, please don’t hang up!”

“You have thirty seconds, how did you get this phone?” The woman growled,

“I work–work with her my n-n-name’s Wynonna, it was i-in her desk, I’m the one who needed you to find somebody, a guy, Dolls?” She stammered, trying to get the information out before the woman disconnected.

“Full name, yours.”

“Uh, Wynonna Earp.”

There was a long pause before the woman returned to the phone, “So Miss Earp,” her voice sounded way less suspicious and a hell of a lot more smug, “you seem to have a colorful history,” Wynonna groaned internally, _fucking people_ , she scrubbed her face with her free hand before resting her chin on it.

“Yeah, what’s that got to do with fuck all?”

“Testy are we? I just want to know why some ex juvie mental patient is working on a cross border task force with the US Marshals?”

 _Ex juvie what?_ It took every ounce of mental strength for Wynonna to not scream into the phone and smash her head on the desk. Throbbing pain radiated throughout her body as she attempted to compose herself. After a couple of deep breaths and a mental _you got this_ , she got back on the line, “Well when you know the people.”

“So they trust you, and let you come work with my friend?” Her friend? Then it dawned on Wynonna, this was Paola.

No wonder the whole conversation seemed so off to her, if this was just some spook they would have hung up a long time ago. Nicole meant something to this woman.

She hesitated before asking, “Is this Paola?”

She heard a faint, almost inaudible gasp from the other end, she was right. Paola muttered something in Spanish before asking, “So, where is Nic?”

Wynonna sucked in a breath before saying, “She’s missing.”

“What? Tell me everything, now!”

Well if she wasn’t going to hang up before she certainly would now, “You wouldn’t believe me.” Wynonna replied, her tone bordering on whiny.

“Speak!” Paola shouted into the phone, blowing out an eardrum in the process.

So Wynonna did, the whole story, Wyatt, the curse, Waverly killing a stripper… everything.

Paola, surprisingly, didn’t say a single thing the entire time, and Wynonna was sure she heard the scribbling of a pen. After she finished, Paola didn’t say anything for a while. Wynonna couldn’t bear the silence, “Please help me, please help.”

“Alright Earp, it’s alright.” Paola said gently.

“Ok.”

“I gotta go, keep that phone on you.”

“Yea– sure.”

Paola hung up abruptly, leaving Wynonna to wonder if she actually believed any of it, or CSIS black-ops clowns were going to bust down her door that night.

 

Mictian waited patiently outside of the interrogation room while Corey finished up. It had heard the sounds of electricity crackling and screaming so it just had to investigate. Once he, Clem, and another man left the room Mictian waltzed in.

Sweaty and twichy, Nicole lay chained to the table, Mictian skirted around to the side. Eyes closed, Nicole didn’t notice Mictian’s presence until she felt a hand gently caress her face. She popped open an eye to find Waverly staring down at her.

“Oh my baby, what did they do to you?” It cooed.

Groaning, Nicole hoarsely replied, “Oh fuck off you don’t care.”

Mictian tsked as it left her side to inspect the array of tools, it picked up a knife. “This will do.” It said quietly.

Back at the table, Mictian hopped up positioning itself on top of Nicole, “We haven’t talked much.” It said while fiddling with the knife.

Nicole let out a little breathless chuckle, “Yeah, mostly me screaming and you laughing.”

“We should change that.” It replied, nodding in agreement.

“Put the knife down then.” It was worth a shot.

“Ha.”

“Please.” Great, begging. That was the last thing Nicole wanted to do.

Mictian shook its head, and lazily cut into Nicole’s stomach

Nicole bit the side of her mouth to not scream. She tasted blood almost instantly as her teeth chewed right into her cheek.

Still not the worst pain management technique she’s tried so far.

“You regret that don’t you?” It asked her.

She didn’t know what exactly it was asking but she nodded anyway. Mictian leaned forward, propping itself up and trapping Nicole’s head between a restless hand, and a knife.

It abandoned the knife to cradle Nicole’s head, running fingers through greasy strands before peppering the captive woman’s face with soft kisses. Nicole felt tears leaking down the side of her face, she wanted it so badly to be Waverly this time. She didn’t want to be repulsed by her hands anymore, recoil at her touch.

Fear the sound of her voice.

“You won’t ruin her for me.” Nicole muttered.

“What was that?” Mictian asked.

“You won’t ruin her for me.” She said more forcefully.

It laughed and picked up the knife again, “Oh sweetie,”

It pained her to hear it use Waverly’s wonderful voice.

“I already have.”

Without another word, Mictian sliced Nicole diagonally from shoulder to chest.

Nicole cried out and thrashed against her chains in a vain attempt to shake Mictian off. Unshaken and undeterred, Mictian held out a hand in front of Nicole’s, and she watched in horror as Waverly’s eyes turned a soulless black and her hand begin to glow.

Too bad it wasn’t just a neat trick, Waverly’s hand went from an intense orange to an actual ball of fire.

Mictian waved its new trick dangerously close to Nicole’s face. “I know what you fear.” It taunted as Nicole screamed and desperately jerked her head away from the flames.

A flaming finger found its way to the bleeding wound, the hapless woman pinned to the table begged and cried.

A futile effort, Mictian dug its finger into the wound and listened to the sizzling.

 

When Dolls had told her the language nerds were ready to start, Wynonna assumed that they’d be out by themselves wandering the Barrens. Instead she was standing in the middle of a bunch of spooky lookin’ trees with Dolls glued to her side, while a group of cold ass men in black chanted spells in silly accents.

Not to mention the blizzard that was currently happening around them. The roar of the wind whipping through the trees, and the spell casting would have sounded way more frightening if the government suits didn’t sound like a bunch of ABBA wannabes.

Despite the noise, she managed to hear Nicole’s secret phone beep. Paola had texted to let her know she met with CSIS agents and they’d be getting in touch with BBD.

_Oh shit._

It was in that moment that Wynonna realized she’d made a terrible mistake. Dolls must have noticed her eyes about to pop out of their sockets, so he leaned over to get a peek at the text.

He sucked in a breath, “Earp, what did you do?” He asked clearly appalled.

“Earp!”

Lucado’s shrill voice pierced through the wind’s roar. She trudged over to Wynonna red faced and pissed.

“CSIS!” She shouted.

“Yeah oops.”

Lucado’s mouth hung open like she wanted to scream, but only the odd squeak fell out.

“Hey just look at it this way,” Dolls said, in a valiant attempt to take the heat off of her, “Now we got the Canadians to come deal with their demon infested country.”

“They know!” Was all she could scream back.

He shrugged casually, “What are they going to do? It’s Canada.”

Lucado held out a finger desperate to make a comeback, she took a deep breath and held it for a moment. And then dropped her hand in defeat. It was true, what were they going to do? Their military was literally eight people, a row boat, and a shot gun.

That’s how Nicole always phrased it right?

Wynonna supposed she should be relieved, but she was too suspicious of this coming back to bite her somehow.

“But, Canada.” Lucado whined softly as she shimmied childishly.

Doc walked over and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder, “Uh, there, there.”

She shrugged him off and stormed away.

The night was a bust anyway.

 

It took weeks.

 _Weeks_.

Weeks of wandering the Barrens chanting stupid Norse spells, but one evening as the sun started to dip under the trees, Dolls’s annoying ass chanting finally paid off.

In a clearing by a little stream, a cabin materialized in front of them.

It wasn’t some quaint Thomas Kinkade painting however. No, it looked like somewhere that Pinhead guy from Hellraiser would vacation. Littering the ground surrounding the cabin were yellowed bones, butchered bodies hung from hooks on the trees, on a clothesline some poor bastard’s skin hung out to dry. She wanted to puke.

“Jesus Christ.” Doc croaked, both guns now drawn.

Aware that his cover was blown, Forest the butcher barreled out of his cabin, enormous bloody ax in hand. He was hideous, dressed entirely what she hoped was animal skins, tangled mass of jet black hair, beady little angry black eyes darting between the three intruders, but his skin; so white he could have been a ghost.

“Earp!” He called her name in a raspy hiss, his ax raised, ready to strike.

“Hi Forest.” She said wearily, “Bet you’re wondering how we found you.”

“Betrayed?” He shouted, baring yellow pointed teeth.

“And we have no qualms with telling you by who, but we need information too.” Dolls said, holding a hand out, trying to soften the revenant’s anger.

He studied their faces, long and hard, he’d catch their tics and see through their lies. But they all looked so earnest, so truthful. The black man never drew his weapon, and he looked like someone who would never hesitate to draw on a threat. Forest, or really Vidar, growled in frustration, someone betrayed him, but they wanted him to betray someone else.

And that would mean another trip to hell, from the Earp woman’s determined face that probably meant eternity.

He didn’t want the agony again.

“You want me to betray!” He screeched out, his voice was like a fork dragging across a nice dinner plate.

“You’ll have company.” Wynonna said, Dolls turned and looked at her like she just slapped the Queen.

“I want the trees!” He hissed. He started to circle them, Doc went to aim as Wynonna drew Peacemaker, but Dolls held his hands out to stop them.

“Not yet.” He whispered.

With zero patience left, Wynonna shouted, “Look dickbag, either way it ends here you’re not getting out of it,” she holstered Peacemaker to make a point, “I want Joseph Svane’s location, and you can have your Judas’s name.”

“Never!” He said, lips curling in a defiant sneer.

“Alright then, you can go to hell,” then she had a thought, and decided to run with it, “and Joseph can be buddy-buddy with Mictian.”

His mouth dropped, sneer wiped from his face. Her hunch paid off.

“Don’t like this Mictian fella much do ya?” Doc asked.

Distressed, Vidar dropped his ax and started to whine while running his fingers through his unkempt hair. “It’s parasites, maggots!” He paced around them, grabbing at himself and mumbling nonsense.

They weren’t sure how long he was going to keep it up until he stopped abruptly, “Mount Harrison.”

“What about it?” Wynonna asked, confused.

“You wanted a location, I want my Judas.”

Holy shit he really hated Mictian that much to turn on Jojo that quick.

“Ugly Mick.” Doc answered, Vidar growled and spat.

Wynonna unholstered Peacemaker once again, she stepped up to him. He didn’t attempt run, instead he sank to his knees in despair, glancing around the quiet snow covered Barrens once more.

“Was robbery really so evil a crime I had to be sent to hell?” He asked her.

She shook her head as her eyes flicked over to the mutilated bodies, “Did you have to escalate it?”

“I guess not.” He answered shamefully.

Wynonna leveled Peacemaker at his head, his eyes burned red, “Make your peace.”

“I don’t think I’m destined to ever have it.”

She pulled the trigger and watched as hellfire swallowed him whole. Dolls put a hand gently on her shoulder, “You did it,” he said softly, “we have a location.”

“Yeah.” They had a location, but she wanted to go home and drown some misplaced emotions in a bottle of Jack.

He was a serial killer for Christ’s sake.

 

The following evening a drone was sent to scout out Mt. Harrison, at its base an old decrepit building with several vans parked out front was located.

A black-ops team reconned the area the following day. They spotted two men matching the descriptions of Joseph Svane and Corey Milton.

During the briefing, Wynonna sat while Lucado discussed the finer points of the op but she wasn’t really listening, in her head the saw mill was replaying over and over, Nicole disappearing behind machinery never to be seen again. Was there something she could have done different? Other than not go? Were they going to be too late? God she was going to jump out of her skin. When did Lucado say the op was happening? Forty-eight hours?

Not soon enough.

 

Mictian slipped into the room they were holding Nicole in well after midnight, the room was dark, switching on the lantern it found Nicole on her side partially covered by the blanket.

“I know you’re not sleeping.” It said playfully.

Nicole could barely open her eyes, but she could just make out Waverly’s frame. “So you gonna start paying me for this or are you going to keep stiffing me every time?”

Mictian dropped beside her, caressing her face with both hands it replied, “Always have jokes ready?” Its hands went lower, skimming tense flesh, “You have to start relaxing sometime.” It remarked.

When Nicole didn’t say anything it grabbed her face, squeezing, “You know you enjoy this.”

Despite this Nicole replied, “No, I’d enjoy it more if you were actually good at it,” she watched as Waverly’s brows furrowed and lips purse together in indignation, “you just remind me of a teen fumbling through their first time, every time.”

No it wasn’t particularly clever, but it sure did hit some sore spot. Mictian released her and left the room abruptly, only to return moments later with brick.

Eyeing the brick, Nicole mustered the little strength she had and pushed herself upright, “What, you finally have balls to kill me yourself?”

Waverly’s hazel eyes narrowed but her lips never moved.

Nicole smiled, her cracked, chapped lips hurt like hell but she couldn’t help it, “You just realized you didn’t win, did you?”

Mictian watched as Nicole’s chest heaved with every breath she took, it looked down at the brick in Waverly’s delicate hand. The bloody, battered woman on the floor was going to die long before it could break her down.

Brick raised, it surged forward, Nicole never had a chance to react.

 

Revenants didn’t sleep. So there really wasn’t any logical reason for a nighttime raid. But plans were drafted, and orders were given. An abandoned forest lodge at the base of Mt. Harrison was their destination.

From Lucado’s intel, construction for the lodge originally began in 1985 but was halted in ’86 after the resort company filed for bankruptcy. The main lodge was the only building left fully intact after thirty years of neglect.

And that’s where Jojo was holed up.

Anxious, Wynonna shifted restlessly in her seat. She was assured by BBD that Jojo and the creature were none the wiser. But she just couldn’t stop thinking, _what if they knew?_

_What if she’s dead?_

_Were they too late?_

She felt a hand cover her own, and a thumb began to gently rub exposed skin. She knew Dolls was waiting for her to turn, but she just couldn’t look at him.

“I promised him Dolls, I looked that little boy right in the eyes and told him we were bringing his mama home.” She started curl up in her seat, “What if—”

He grabbed her hand, holding it tight “Hey,” she didn’t turn, her worried eyes glued to the dark forest their convoy was currently traveling through. “Wynonna, Wynonna look at me.” When she refused, he cupped her face tenderly turning it, “We have come too far for doubts to start rearing their ugly little heads.” He expected her to not laugh, but she didn’t even snort or roll her eyes.

She pulled away from him, “Yeah no you and humor aren’t friends.”

This was not the time for this behavior, they were driving straight into a hostage crisis with an unknown number of human and demon enemies. “I don’t know what else you want me to say Earp, but you can’t do this.”

She shot him a contemptable glare but he kept his gaze on her steady.

“We’re about seven kilometers out and we got choppers on route, get your head in the game Earp.”

“Who’s in the choppers?”

“We got one BBD operations unit and a JTF2 team.”

She gaped at him, “Paola?”

He nodded.

 _Please help us._ Her own plea, echoed in her mind. “That’s good, that’s great.”

“It is, now focus Earp.”

“Going dark Agent Dolls.” Their driver informed them and promptly switched off the headlights. Wynonna watched as a grainy green picture of the road popped up on the windshield.

“What the hell?”

“We don’t want them to know we’re coming Ms. Earp.” He answered.

“Well… shit cool.”

“ _Hey? Hey asshole you hearin’ me?_ ” Dolls sighed as Doc’s gravelly voice began assaulting his eardrum.

“Yeah I hear you Doc what’s up?”

“There doin’ magic over here with the windas!”

Wynonna snorted, loud, prompting Doc to next ask, “Y’all hearin’ pigs?”

“That was Earp, Holliday,” Dolls pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering something before continuing, “We are now four kilometers out, you can ask about the window magic later.”

From the front seat Lucado added, “I think next week we should enroll Mr. Holliday in that ‘elders and tech’ course I saw at the library. He would benefit from it immensely.”

“I agree, and we are now at the rendezvous point choppers are inbound.”

 _Elders and tech, should get Gus on that shit too._ She checked her gear one last time as they came to a stop. Exiting the SUV, she heard the helicopters overhead and looked up to see them hovering above the lodge.

“That’s not exactly the stealthiest entry now is it?” Wynonna asked as the group made its way up to the lodge.

“They’re the distraction, we’re going in through the basement.” Dolls answered as he retrieved bolt cutters from his bag.

There wasn’t a soul, dead or undead outside. It _was_ two in the morning, and they _were_ supposed to be unexpected. But there wasn’t a sentry in sight. Was it arrogance? Or… or maybe a mole?

 

Mictian stood over Nicole, brick still in hand, listening to unintelligible cries from the woman on the floor. Unable to close her mouth, Nicole sobbed wildly as she held her broken jaw.

“Oh dear,” it sighed, “well I guess I am done with you now.” It tsked and tossed the brick, “I’ll fetch the bald prick to dispose of you.”

As it turned to the door gunfire erupted on the main level, the men in the basement began shouting orders at each other as they all headed up the stairs.

It watched them run up, chuckling to itself, “How convenient.”

Behind Dolls, Wynonna, Doc, Lucado, Frank, and Leon descended the stairs. The basement level of the building was as cold as the frigid February night they were exiting.

The basement was pitch black, were all the generators out of gas? The men must have taken any sources of light with them as they went to engage the black ops teams. Flashlights on, the team split up with Wynonna and Doc following Dolls down the north corridor and others down the west.

Gunfire and shouting from the main floors echoed down the halls making it difficult for the teams to hear one another.                                                                      

“Fuckin’ freezin’ down here.” Doc swore into his into his mic.

“Shut it Holliday, Earp keep your eyes on that end of the hallway, stairwell’s at that end.” Dolls ordered as he cautiously opened a door.

Storage room, empty. He gestured for Doc to do the same for the one directly across the hall.

Also empty.

They made their way down the hall, the sounds of battle growing quieter as they moved farther away from the basement entrance. They came up bust in in a few more rooms, but then they hit one that wasn’t so empty. Dolls’s light hit a sturdy wooden table, shackles at both ends. And bloody, so bloody.

“Think we found the torture room.” Dolls said quietly.

Wynonna pushed past him, swinging her light around the room, finding a huge gas tank, generator, bloodied chair, chains dangling from the walls.

“Jesus Christ.”

“What? What did you find?” Lucado demanded.

“Interrogation room, recently used.” Dolls said into his mic.

“Christ!”

“Shit!”

Light headed, Wynonna hurried out of the room.

Doc turned to Dolls “Recently used, a—” he stopped himself, disgust clear on his face, before continuing, “a good thing I suppose?”

“If they only have _one_ person captive.” He answered darkly.

“I do wonder where the good officer is then.” Doc pondered out loud as he followed Dolls out.

They found Wynonna leaning against the wall, “We have to keep moving, you need a hand?” Doc asked as he reached out. She swatted him away and pushed off the wall, trudging down the hall until she stopped at the final door.

And opened it.

On the floor in the middle of the frigid room, lay Nicole, on her side back to the door crying softly. Though Wynonna stepped into the room, Nicole hadn’t yet registered her presence.

“Nic?” Wynonna called. Nicole stopped crying, and began to whine instead while her battered limbs flopped awkwardly as she attempted to turn herself.

“Oh god, Doc!” Wynonna sank to the ground, the men came rushing in. “Help me up damnit!” she demanded, too stunned to move.

It was her, it was really her.

Dolls pulled her up and the trio stared at the bloodied woman, in a silent state of absolute confoundment, only to be jarred back to reality by Lucado’s incessant badgering for updates.

“Status Agent Dolls!” No answer, “Xavier? Damnit answer me!”

“Uh… um,” It took a second for the words to come, but he responded, “uh Deputy Haught has been located.”

“Where?”

“Back end of the north corridor.”

“Coming to you.”

He watched as Wynonna slowly approached Nicole, pangs of guilt already starting to eat at him. He’d always considered himself a skilled liar; putting up a hopeful, determined front for Wynonna’s sake all the while believing the shirtless, bloody, whimpering woman on the floor to be dead. Dead and disposed of, because why would they have any reason to keep her alive? And yet here she was.

“Nic?” Wynonna asked as she rolled Nicole over, and gagged as a fetid stench emanated from the woman, “Oh god she fucking reeks! And fucking freezing!” Wynonna went for the blanket in the corner of the room, but it was as filthy as the woman on the floor.

“Here take my jacket.” Doc shrugged out of his long coat and offered it to Wynonna; who gratefully took it, and held in her gags as she pulled Nicole up.

“Ahhnnonn–”

“What?” Wynonna asked distractedly as she bundled Nicole into the jacket.

“Ahhnnnoonn–”

“Nic just say—” _Oh… god_. Paying actual attention to her face now, Wynonna finally noticed why Nicole wasn’t saying actual words. The woman’s mouth hung open at a hideously unnatural angle. “Oh shit, Dolls!”

Dolls knelt beside her, she heard him sigh and felt a tug on her scarf.

“Just hold her still.” He said while unraveling Wynonna’s thick scarf, “Alright girl this is going to hurt, but it’ll be quick I promise.”

Nicole groaned loudly in protest and wriggled in Wynonna’s arms, Dolls leaned in but stench was so nauseating he pulled back, “Wow that uh,” he shook his head and let out a _whoo_ before continuing, “girl,” he said to Nicole, “I can smell the sepsis you got, damn.”

“Wow man rude.” Wynonna said shoving him.

He just shrugged and started stabilizing Nicole’s jaw.

As Wynonna and Dolls handled Nicole, Doc watched the corridor. The sounds of gunfire had faded upstairs, but that wasn’t what so unnerving, no it was the fact that he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of a single revenant since entering the basement. They had a pretty big reason to be down there.

So why wasn’t anybody guarding Nicole?

Figures emerged from the shadows. Features obscured, Doc wasn’t sure who they were so he drew his gun and prepared to fire when he heard Lucado’s voice, “Whoa, whoa, whoa pornstache don’t shoot it’s us.”

Unconvinced and sure it was one of Clootie’s tricks, Doc kept his gun trained on her, “Oh reall—”

“Yes really!” She shouted, “Didn’t you hear us radioing you?”

“No I’ve gotten nothing but silence since your brief exchange with Mr. Dolls.”

“Oh perfect, that must explain why I haven’t been able to get Caraballo or Whitman, those glowy eyed dickbeards are retreating down here.” She charged into the room nearly bowling Doc over, “Agent Dolls, status?”

Dolls checked the scarf one more time before he gently placed Nicole back in Wynonna’s arms, standing he replied, “Well we found her, and we haven’t encountered anyone else.”

“Well you’re about to.”

As if on cue, shouting and gunfire erupted in the hallway, “You’re up Earp!” Dolls shouted, scooping Nicole up and handing her off to Leon.

“God damn it!” Wynonna pulled Peacemaker out and bolted out of the room with Doc and Frank following behind.

“We should probably get out of here?” Leon asked Dolls.

“Yeah, but we should wait until Earp clears us a path.”

“Alright.” Despite the stench, he held Nicole tighter, “It’s gonna be fine, you’re gonna be fine.” He murmured as she started whimpering again.

“Hi fuckers!” Wynonna shouted, greeting the revenants funneling into the corridor. To her amusement the men started screaming and shoving each other in a desperate attempt to escape Peacemaker’s fiery glow.

Without hesitation she pulled the trigger and they fell one by one, consumed by hell fire.

“That’s a bit unfair isn’t it Nonna?”

_What… no._

Slowly Wynonna turned, Waverly stood by the stairwell, flanked by Jojo and Corey.

“You know what,” She trained her gun on Jojo, “I’d say after everything I’ve seen here I think it’s a bit more than fair.” She pulled the trigger, but the bullet never hit its target.

Suspended in midair inches from Jojo’s face, the bullet remained for several moments before dropping to the ground. Jojo’s eyes burned a triumphant red, and Corey bared his hideous teeth in a cocky grin.

“Oh I don’t know what the fuck you two are smiling about, if she wasn’t standing there both your asses would be in hell right now!” Wynonna shouted, Mictian’s telekinetic miracles had worn her damn patience down to nothing.

“The Earp bitch has a point you know.” Constance said, appearing behind Waverly and wagging a finger at the men. Both their smiles dropped in humiliation.

“Well,” Mictian started, “this was fun, but I do believe we’ve been put at a rather large disadvantage so, I think we will be taking our leave.”

“You will like h—” But with a wave of a hand the group was gone.

“God damn it! Fuck!” Damn, they were not going to be easy to track down again.

_God damn it Waverly._

Remembering the group of “glowy eyed dickbeards” behind her, Wynonna spun around, but they had already started for the stairs.

Cowards.

“What disadvantage? It could have killed us without even touchin’ us!” Frank shouted, gesturing wildly to where the creature was.

She shook her head, the creature’s actions were baffling and more than disconcerting, but they had Nicole, alive, and as long as Mictian was in Waverly she’d be safe.

At least they were one for three tonight.

 

Outside, Wynonna quietly watched as the medics got Nicole secured on the stretcher, they’d wiped some of the dried blood off her face and her right eye was able to open a little. Wynonna could see it darting around.

“Can I see her before you guys take off?” She asked one of the medics.

“Yeah sure just make it quick, taking off in a minute.”

She nodded and made her way over to Nicole, who looked up at her anxiously.

“Hey uhh…” Uncertain as to what she should say, Wynonna found herself reaching out to gently stroke Nicole’s bruised cheek.

And after a moment uttered something that would go on to be quoted at every party, outing, family gathering, anywhere Nicole could fit it to a conversation adding, _right into every snowbank she could possibly find!_

 “So I uh,” she winced, “drove your car…”

Nicole’s one good eye nearly bulged out its socket.

There was shouting, well… loud incomprehensible gibberish, as she writhed under blankets and straps.

“The hell did you say?” One of the medics shouted at her.

Hightailing it away from the chopper she shouted back, “Nothing!”. Covering most of her face in shame, Wynonna scurried over to Doc.

Amused and baffled he asked, “And just what did you say to her?”

“I um, may have mentioned I drove her car…”

Tom, who was in ear shot started laughing, “Oh no why would you tell her that, the moment she can walk Earp you’re a goner.”

“Thanks Tom.”

He just shook his head and walked away while Dolls marched over to the two.

“Earp.”

“Dolls.” Wynonna replied mimicking the gruffness in his tone.

His admonishing glare killed the little joy she had gained from the rescue, she cleared her throat, “Dolls.”

“My superiors are not pleased with tonight’s results—”

Aghast, she shouted, “What?” while pointing to the now ascending helicopter, “we rescued someone,” she pointed to the captured revenants and humans, “we caught people! We—”

“Didn’t complete the main objective.” He finished. And he was right, Waverly and those three clowns got away.

His face softened, “But they aren’t pissed, we got the hostage and whatever intel those dickheads over there can cough up will be enough for them for now. We’ll fly back to Purgatory tonight and regroup later today.”

“I’m not going back to Purgatory, my ass is going straight to Calgary.”

Doc was on his umpteenth eyeroll for the day, Wynonna’s obstinance could be exasperating. “Wynonna—”

“No, don’t Wynonna me, she needs us there.”

“She’s gonna be in surgery all goddamn day Earp, they’re not going to let anyone see her until she’s stable, we are going back to Purgatory.” Dolls snapped.

Despondent now, her whole body sagged, “I just wanted to be there when she wakes up. You know, see a familiar face.”

Dolls sighed, “We’ll be there, okay? Just give it some time.” After some childish grumbling Wynonna nodded. “Alright, I got to find Lucado, give me five and then we’ll head out.”

She couldn’t argue with that. Watching the helicopter fade in the distance, she thought rescuing Nicole would extinguish the guilt she had been carrying, but it just seemed to grow instead.

She was going to have to face the woman, face her and beg for forgiveness for her stupidity. Nicole would rebuff any apology she made.

Wynonna was certain of it.

“Earp?” A feminine voice called to her.

Wynonna turned to find a soldier approaching them.

It was Paola.

“Mr. Holliday,” she added.

Doc tipped his hat, “Sargent Caraballo I presume?”

She smiled, “That would be me.” She pulled them both in for a quick hug, “Just wanted to actually meet you guys in person before I head back to Gagetown.”

Confused, Wynonna said, “You can’t leave, we’re not done?”

Paola shook her head, “No we’re done, this was the agreement. My unit is heading back to Petawawa in the morning, then it’s off to Iraq for us.” Confusion and betrayal were plain on Wynonna’s face so for her sake Paola added, “I saw her before they took off and I called Abby.”

“I thought that was the Sheriff’s job?” Doc asked.

She grinned sheepishly, “It is usually, but I got a little carried away. Had to try twice to get her to pick up forgot it was so late. She cried when I told her.”

“Sarge!” One of her people yelled.

“Whoops that’s me. I’ll be in touch okay?”

Wynonna nodded, “Uh yeah, don’t be a stranger.”

They watched her go, just until her chopper disappeared over the mountains. “I think we ought to get going as well.” He shivered, his jacket was with Nicole, “I know I have this little immortality thing going on but I’m still fully capable of turning into a damn icicle.”

Wynonna could empathize, it was fucking freezing out. She put an arm around him as they headed to the SUV.

 

Lucado had gotten an earful from her boss. They’d let Mictian get away, well not really, they just hadn’t anticipated it pulling a Houdini on them. She stuck a finger in her ear, jiggling it around hoping to get the ringing to cease. She turned to find Dolls leaning against an SUV, he had the faintest smirk on his face.

Scowling, she grumbled, “What?”

“Glowy eyed dickbeards?”

It took her a moment to register what he was talking about. Appalled, she gasped and shouted, “These goddamn yokels! Oh I hate this place!”

Dolls laughed, a loud genuine laugh, “You stop laughing!” She demanded, “Stop or I’ll send you to goddamn Russia!”

Entirely unconvinced he nodded, “Uh-huh, sure, yeah Russia.”

“Oh for god’s sake get in the truck.”

 

It was well past three in the morning when Abby’s phone rang. Second time too, must be important if they were going to call this late at night. She answered it.

It was Paola.

They found Nicole.

She cried as Paola explained that Nicole was badly injured and was airlifted to Foothills Medical Center.

Hanging up she debated on waking Nicholas up or waiting for the morning. She couldn’t wait.

Tip-toeing into his room she grabbed the picture of Nicole off his nightstand and sat on the edge of his bed, hugging it before she woke him.

“Nick.” she whispered, gently shaking him.

He groaned, pulling the blanket over his face and turning over in protest.

She laughed, pulling it down, “Nick I need you up for a second.”

Sleepy eyes narrowed at her, god he had his mother’s face, “What mom?”

“So I just got a phone call from mama’s friend Paola, you remember her?”

He popped up, eyeing her and the picture in her arms warily, “Yeah?”

“Well she just called to tell me that tonight, they found mama—”

He threw the covers off, smacking her in the face with them, “I wanna see her!”

Before Nicholas could jump off the bed, Abby set the picture down and grabbed him, struggling with him momentarily before pulling him into a hug.

“I wanna see my mama!” He cried, burying his face into her shoulder. The tears that had just stopped started right back up again.

“She’s at the hospital baby, we can go when the doctors say we can.”

He wiped his eyes, “Why is she at the hospital?”

There was no way in hell she was going to tell any of the graphic details of Nicole’s kidnapping to their eight-year-old son. He wasn’t nearly old enough yet to have a drinking problem. “The bad guys weren’t very nice to her.” There, nice and child friendly.

“They hurt mama?” His voice broke, “Why?”

The distraught look on his face nearly destroyed her, “Because, because that’s just how bad people are. They’re just not nice to the good guys.”

He cried more and she regretted waking him up. _God he’s not going to school in the morning_ , _he’s a wreck_ , she thought bitterly to herself as she held him.

“Alright honey, let’s get you back into bed.” She set him back down and fixed the covers over him, wiping away tears with her sleeve. She picked the picture frame up to put it back on the nightstand, but Nicholas snatched it out of her hands.

“I want this.” He said clutching it, his face daring her to take it back.

Abby sighed, too exhausted to argue she just nodded.

“Stay?” He asked as she went to get up.

She looked the tiny bed up and down, _I’m going to have such backache in the morning._ “Sure.” She pulled up the covers, “Scooch your butt.” He scooched and she settled into an uncomfortable position with her feet hanging off the side.

“The doctors will give us a call in the morning,” she said giving him a kiss, “they’ll tell us when we can go see her, ok?”

He nodded, and within minutes was asleep again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting with the next chapter I'm going to just give timelines in the summary to show when each chapter takes place. It's easier than figuring out chapter summaries.  
> Anyway coming up in the next chapter; people fall in love, people fall out of love, somebody gets the nickname No Nips, somebody stops being possessed, and this author has to not fuck up writing a duet.  
> And to those of you who comment, I see you and appreciate it.


	15. Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> February 2016-March 2016

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I refuse to admit that I'm breaking up big chapters again.  
> I refuse!

Surprisingly, Wynonna managed to fall asleep on the trip back. She awoke to the whirring of blades, and the roar of the chopper’s engine.

Bitter cold stung her cheeks, and for a disorientating moment she had no idea how she was outside.

Then Dolls smiled down at her and she realized he was carrying her.

“You can put me down you know.”  She said, well yawned.

He shook his head, “We’re almost inside, I’m gonna just drop you on a cot and do the report.”

She thought her head was going to tilt right off from sheer confusion, “Do you sleep, like at all?”

Behind them, Doc stretched and answered for Dolls, “Course he does, in his Batman jammies.”

Dolls’s smile evaporated with his trademark scowl replacing it instead.

Wynonna held her giggles.

 

Mictian abandoned the three stooges in Black Diamond, its plan, while hastily slapped together, should not have failed nearly as spectacularly as it had.

Since those three were about as useful as a hole in a canoe, it dropped them like the trash they were. It didn’t need them, it could get the Earp heir all on its own. It knew Waverly’s face was all over Alberta by now, so in the Beltline District of Calgary it hid in a bedroom of the Lougheed House. It opened at ten, plenty of time to rest.

 

“Earp, Earp.” Wynonna felt someone shaking her.

“G’way.” She mumbled into her pillow while swatting at the unwelcome dream intruder.

“Earp.” Dolls said firmly before giving her one final shake, resulting in her swatting so hard she fell off the damn cot.

“What!” She cried out.

“So I just got off the phone with the one of the surgeons who was working on Deputy Haught—”

More than awake now, Wynonna bolted up right, instantly losing her balance falling gracelessly back onto the cot.

“Well when can we see her?” She asked eagerly as she successfully got up the second time around.

Dolls made a weird, negative face at her, “Well—”

“She did not die?”

“No, no,” he clarified, “they had to induce her into a coma.”

“Well I still want to see her.” She said angrily, trudging over to the blessed box of Tim Horton’s coffee on the conference table. As she sat and poured a cup, Dolls took the seat next to her while Tom and Doc joined them.

“Abby called me,” Tom started as poured his own cup, “It’s, it’s bad.”

Dolls nodded in agreement, “Other than the obvious broken jaw, multiple broken ribs, detached retina, her spleen was so damaged they had to remove it, volvulus of the intestines, burns so bad they got a plastic surgeon from Toronto flying in for consultation.”

As he listed Nicole’s numerous, horrific injuries, Wynonna felt all the emotions she had kept down bubble to the surface. A lump formed in her throat, she couldn’t blink sneaky little tears away fast enough.

Dolls noticed those dastardly tears, she felt his hand settle over hers. “It’s gonna be ok.” He whispered.

But was it though? Nicole was barely alive and would probably be out of commission for months. And possibly never be able to return to work.

And Waverly was still possessed.

 

Constance abandoned Jojo and Corey faster than you could say Stone Witch. The two men stood outside a Tim Horton’s in Black Diamond, debating if they should get something inside or go around back and steal that really nice Ford pickup Corey was eyeing.

And since demons don’t need to eat, they stole the Ford.

 

Wynonna went with Tom and Gus to see Nicole’s neighbor Edna, well former neighbor. She had forgotten that Abby had given the elderly woman one of Nicole’s old BDU jackets, so she was totally surprised to see it on Edna. It fit her like a dress.

“I want to see her.” Edna said as she sat in her late husband’s favorite armchair; huge and blue with shoddily patched hole in the seat.

“She’s in the ICU right now honey, Abby hasn’t even seen her yet.” Gus said as she poured hot water into two flower pattered teacups.

“Oh, well you’ll tell me of course?” Edna asked as she dropped a teabag into the cup.

“Of course dear.”

“And what of the demons?” There was steel in Edna’s voice as she shifted her focus to Wynonna.

Who felt ashamed that she had to tell the little old lady in front of her that they got away, but she had to. “They got away Edna. Just went poof.”

Edna took a deep, slow breath and played around with the teabag’s string, “You better find them.”

Better find them? No, she had to.

 

At the station Wynonna found Dolls in his office rereading one of the reports on Waverly, scribbled on the note pad next to him, _Light? Dark?_ Since she first read that report weeks ago, she had time to think, long and hard about that question.

“I think she’s dark.”

Dolls looked up, “It doesn’t express itself like eye color Earp.”

And then she said, out loud, a thought she’d been trying to suffocate since learning of Waverly’s abilities, “And I don’t think she’s related to me.”

Dumbfounded, Dolls swiveled to face her, “What?”

“I’m normal,” his eyebrows shot up, “shut up, Willa was normal, Daddy was normal, Mama was normal…” Suddenly at a loss, she started to rub her hands, finding her words again she continued, “No Earp has ever been magic, and I certainly haven’t heard about any Gibson either.”

“I see, but why dark?” 

“She, she puts on this show like she wants to be the town darling, but inside… inside if you pay close enough attention, you can see it in her eyes, the anger, the hate…”

Dolls rose, grabbing her arms and rubbing them gently he replied, “Wynonna, she had a terrible childhood, did she ever get any counseling?”

“Dolls,” she knew it was a hunch, but damn it why was he trying so hard to tank it, “you have to trust me on this—”

The dream she had nearly three months ago popped into her head, _she’s lying to you_. “The dream, Mictian was in my dream it said she was lying to me, now I know why Dolls.” Then she had an epiphany, “Do you think Mictian would have had a more difficult time accessing Waverly’s abilities if she was light magic, or would it have been easier?”

“Dark isn’t synonymous with evil.” Lucado stood at the doorway, “But you might be on to something.”

“See, sometimes I’m smart.” Wynonna said, grinning.

“Don’t get too cocky.” Dolls said with a hint of a smile.

All’s they had to do now was find Waverly and Mictian.

 

Wynonna hated hospitals, for a lot of reasons, but for Nicole she was going to suck it up and go visit her.

Abby had called to let them know the doctors had brought Nicole out of the coma, she was still loopy as fuck from the medication, but they could go see her.

So Wynonna piled everyone in Nicole’s shiny Corolla and drove out to Calgary.

And was now currently standing outside said Corolla owner’s hospital room.

“You’re hesitating.” Dolls whispered as he came up behind her. They were the only two who hadn’t gone in yet.

“I’m goin’, I’m goin’.” She remained still however, so Dolls put a hand gently to her back and pushed her in.

She was going to smack him for that later. The room was packed, but most kept their distance to not crowd and overwhelm Nicole.

Wynonna could hear the injured woman talking, heavy on the slurring but she was talking nonetheless.

“Sho m-many people.”

“Yeah, guess you didn’t know you were popular huh?” Abby replied as she stroked Nicole’s hair.

Wynonna inched closer to the bed to get a better view, with all the blood and crap cleaned off, Nicole’s face somehow looked worse than it did, depending on what part the bruises were either sickly yellow or fresh bright purple.

Nicole noticed her, smiling vaguely and mumbling something, before her expression changed; eyebrows furrowed and her one good eye narrowing, to Wynonna it looked like she was trying to remember something.

Well she must have because her one good eye bulged as she weakly raised an arm to point a fingernailess finger at Wynonna, “Carrrrrr!” Nicole said.

Tom and Doc started laughing, Wynonna groaned, “Dude! Let. It. Go.”

“What are you two talking about?” Abby asked as she pushed Nicole’s arm back down.

“Earp drove Nic’s car.” Tom said, earning an exaggerated groan from Nicole.

Bemused, Abby glanced between Nicole and Wynonna before saying, “I had to win the truck in the divorce so I could drive it.”

“It’s not like sh– she was around to say no.” Wynonna said in her own defense.

Dolls just shook his head, she mouthed _what_ at him, but he just kept on shaking. Moving the conversation along Wynonna asked, “So how long are they planning to keep her here?”

Abby frowned, “They’re not quite sure yet, it’s between six weeks to two months depending on recovery speed.”

“Shit, that’s a while.”

Dolls moved next to Wynonna and tapped her on the arm, signaling for her to follow him out, so she excused herself and exited the room.

Away from the door Dolls started, “I know she just woke up, but while it’s still fresh in her mind we need to get a statement from her.”

Horrified, Wynonna could barely keep from screaming, “Are you out of your fucking mind, why would you do that to her?”

He tried to speak but she continued on, “It took two months to find her, I don’t think she’s gonna forget it any time soon.”

He sighed, “Can I speak now?” She nodded, “We need to know if she heard or saw anything Earp.” She started to speak but he cut her off, “They weren’t planning on keeping her alive or us finding her, they may have been careless around her.”

Wynonna stayed quiet for a moment, before nodding. “Ok, but will the doctors let you.”

“Nedley called ahead.” He said, wincing when her eyebrows shot up. “Sit with her, hold her hand, keep her calm.”

Well that was going to be easier said than done, she followed him back into the room, Dolls pulled Abby away to explain, Wynonna watched her face darken before she nodded. Wynonna pulled up a chair next to the bed and shrugged off her enormous black parka, revealing a red cable knit which she paired with old blue jeans and her black boots.

“Thash mine.” Nicole mumbled, poking at Wynonna’s arm.

“Yeah,” she met Nicole’s eye before looking away, “it went with my jeans… and it smelled like you.” She finished quickly, hoping Nicole wouldn’t catch that last part.

Lady luck however, abandoned Wynonna as Nicole did catch it, “You love me, ha ha.” She said grinning and reached out to Wynonna’s face.

Wynonna grabbed Nicole’s hand, kissing it before letting settle on her cheek. She hugged Nicole’s arm, replying, “Guess I do, ya judgmental ass coffee thief.”

Dolls sat on the other side of the bed, smiling awkwardly as he pulled out a pen and notepad. Nicole turned her head to greet him, “Hi Dollsh.”

Quietly, he returned the greeting, “Hi Nicole.” God did he look uncomfortable, Wynonna thought, like a big ball of mood killer. Abby took a seat next to her. Some of the others left to give them some privacy while Tom and Doc remained.

With Abby focusing on Nicole, Dolls, Wynonna, Tom, and Doc all exchanged panicked looks as they realized Abby was still in the room.

How the hell were they supposed to talk about demons with her in there?

They couldn’t just make her leave, too suspicious.

“Miss Wilson, I know you want to be here to support your ex but I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave the room for now.”

Wynonna wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but held it as Abby’s head whipped over to Dolls.

“Excuse me?” She said furiously.

“I’m sorry, but we’re going to be discussing sensitive information that cannot be repeated in front of civilians.” Of course, said with no emotion what so ever, Wynonna wanted to slap him twice for that.

Dolls pocketed his notepad and rose, motioning for Abby to follow. With one last arm pat, Abby rose indignantly and followed Dolls out of the room. When he returned, he just shook his head and sat.

“That went better than expected,” he sat and pulled his notepad out again, “alright let’s start.” He gave Nicole a sort of wincing smile before saying, “I know this is going to be extremely upsetting for you, but I need to ask you some questions about your captivity.”

Nicole’s vague, drugged smile dropped as she started whimpering, Wynonna gripped her hand tighter, murmuring soothing words to calm her.

“I know girl, I know.” Dolls said gently.

After a couple of minutes of tears Nicole started answering questions, but after a few it became apparent that Nicole knew just as little as they did about her captors’ plans. But god were they cruel. Wynonna tried in vain to keep a brave face on for Nicole, but she just couldn’t hide the tears.

“So you talked to Waverly?” Wynonna asked, hopeful. Waverly had been strong enough to break through, maybe they had a chance to get Mictian without incident.

At the mention of the youngest Earp’s name, Nicole’s one good eye bulged as her heart rate spiked. “Shesh not here? Not here?” Nicole mumbled as her eye frantically searched the room.

Dumbfounded, Wynonna tried calming her while Doc and Tom exchanged puzzled glances. Dolls sat quietly, thinking. What reason would she have to fear Waverly?

No, not Waverly.

Of course, Mictian.

He caught Wynonna’s eye before Nicole’s doctor, and a herd of nurses barged in and demanded they get out.

“I am not leaving her.” Wynonna snapped at a nurse.

The woman, short, squat, and pasty lifted a brow and retorted, “Seeing as you’re upsetting her, I think you might have to.”

“It’s ok Wynonna I think we’re done here for now.” Dolls said as he rose.

The others rose with him, but Wynonna remained seated; half in defiance and half because Nicole had a vice like grip of her hand.

“I don’t think she wants me to.”

“Don’t worry,” the doctor, an older Asian man with kind eyes approached the IV bag, “I’m going to give her something to calm her.” A nurse brought over a little bottle and a syringe.

Furious, Wynonna replied, “So you’re going to drug her?”

The doctor, whose last name was apparently Guo according to his nametag, never wavered at her belligerence, instead he politely shook his head, “Nobody is being drugged, as you say, here. She’ll still be conscious and coherent, just not agitated.”

He meant well, he did, but Wynonna was never going to trust him. She spent far too long drugged up for seeing demons to ever develop any kind of trust for medical professionals. But since she clearly had no say, she just nodded.

It took a couple of minutes, but Nicole’s death grip lessened, and the woman went back to her vague smiling. As Wynonna stood, Nicole whined and said, “Shtay.”

“I’ll come back tomorrow.” She said, patting Nicole’s arm.

As they left, Abby confronted them, “They had to sedate her? You really couldn’t have waited?”

“I’m sorry Ms. Wilson,” Dolls could be about as subtle as a freight train sometimes, but as Wynonna had observed, he knew when to be compassionate, “it was better that we did it now, while it was still fresh, than wait. Now she can rest and, well heal. If she remembers anything, she’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

Abby looked like she had something more to say, but she couldn’t come up with any argument against him. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“She’s very lucky to still have you in her life.” He added, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

Taken aback, tears threatened but never fell, “I don’t think I’ve ever had someone say that to me since the divorce.”

“How unfortunate.”

The ride back was quiet, nothing of note had been gleaned from their conversation so there was nothing much to talk about. Well, not entirely true, Gus decided she needed to bring up the upcoming tax bill.

The trip home took less time for some reason.

Probably because she was doing one-forty.

 

“So how do we lure Mictian out?” Wynonna asked a crowded room full of cops.

No one said anything. She was grateful no one stated the obvious, _you got to be alone_.

“I don’t think we can.”

It was Linda who spoke. Intrigued, Wynonna asked, “Why?”

“I doubt it’s that stupid, I think it’s safe to say that it may be doing some recon on us, you specifically seeing as it can teleport...” She stopped for a moment, as an idea slowly started to form, “But say hypothetically that was true, maybe we could entice it to come to us.”

Realization dawned on her, “I think I’m wrong, I think we can lure it.”

Dolls leaned forward in his chair, staring intently at her, “How?”

“Who’s to say it hasn’t been spying on anybody, maybe it’s even come here.” Excited now, Linda popped out of her seat, and nearly sprinted to the board, “Look at all this shit,” she said gesturing wildly, “it’s gonna want to know what we have.”

Hazarding a guess Wynonna replied, “So we plant some fake stuff or something?”

“Yes!” Linda shouted.

“That’s brilliant.” Dolls said.

“But how do we know it’s not watching us right now.” Leon interjected.

Bit of a mood killer but that had to considered, “We’ll probably have to find out.” Said Dolls.

“Oh but we don’t know how to trap it yet!” Wynonna cried.

“Well I think we can do some mixin’ and matchin’.” Doc said.

This was the best idea they’ve had in months, “Ok so like a couple of poker nights at the bar and we hide the spooky crystals and wait and see?” Wynonna asked.

“Yeah but what if we make that force field thing and it bounces off it coz we guessed right or something?” Frank chimed in.

Damn they didn’t think of that, “Maybe, well we’ll be there hopefully anyway to close the field.” Dolls said as he got up.

“Wait,” Wynonna interrupted, “it can do that.”

Dolls shrugged, “If they can keep something in, they can probably it out too.”

Coordinating everything was going to be a bitch, but at least they had a plan.

 

Wynonna had lied to Nicole, not on purpose, but it was a lie nonetheless. It was about a week before she was able to get back over to Foothills.

Alone, she made her was up to the ICU. The florescent lit sterile halls gave her the heebies, so she speed walked her way from the elevator to the nurses’ station.

“Uh, I’m here to see Deputy Haught.” Nerves made her voice crack a bit at Haught, embarrassed, she hoped the annoyed looking woman wasn’t paying too much attention.

The woman in question, cast an incredibly perturbed look at her over the enormous monitor in front of her, “Just you?”

“Uh yep, just me.”

“Well she’s in her room, don’t know if she’s sleeping or not.”

“I’ll be quiet then.” As Wynonna walked away, she cast a glance over her shoulder, and found the nurse watching her with a dubious look.

_Guess they’re still mad about last week._

Nicole thankfully was awake and alert, watching some old cartoon on the TV in her room.

“Uh, hi.”

Nicole made some happy sounding noise as she craned her head over to the door. “Hi.”

“Sup,” guess Nicole was happy to see her, “Watchya watchin’?”

“Looney Tunesh.” She replied cheerfully.

Wynonna pulled a chair up to the bed, Nicole must have still been on some heavy duty pain killers to be this chipper.

“How you been?”

“I’m not allowed to walk.” She said frowning.

Wynonna tsked, “Rude, but hey at least most of the nurses are pretty.”

“Yeah.” Nicole said giggling.

Yep, must be oxycontin, she’d never admit to that sober. “So when you gettin’ sprung, your angry ball of hair misses you?”

“Montsh,” She slurred bitterly, “She mishes me? Nope, liesh.”

Life of a cat owner, Wynonna chuckled, “She does,” she wanted to say that the damn furball destroyed a four hundred dollar leather jacket but instead, “she sleeps on all your stuff.”

Adjusting herself in the bed, Nicole smiled sadly, “I mish her too.”

Wynonna didn’t know what else to say, the air felt a little heavy in the room, there wasn’t much she could talk about without upsetting Nicole. “So uh, whatchu been up too.”

Nicole frowned, “Shleepin’.”

“That’s it?”

“What the hell elsh am I gonna do?” Okay if that was going to make her grumpy Wynonna was going to run out of conversation topics really fast.

“You got a Gameboy?”

Nicole gasped quietly, “No, gimmie one.”

“Alright I’ll get someone on it.” She shot out a quick text to Tom, him and his wife Beth had plans to come up and see Nicole later that afternoon.

The two were quiet a moment before Wynonna blurted out what had been on her mind for almost three months, “Do you hate me?”

Nicole was baffled for a moment before she realized what Wynonna was referring to, “Oh,” her face softened when Wynonna suddenly couldn’t meet her eyes, “no, why would you think that?”

“It was my fault, you should be mad.” Wynonna said, voice breaking.

“Oh I’m mad, not at you though, mad at myshelf.”

Wynonna found Nicole staring, waiting for her to speak, “Why I f—”

“I had a tasher,” Nicole interrupted, “coulda ushed it,” emotion crept into her voice, “coulda shtopped you and avoided the whole thing. Didn’t though.

“Not your fault.” She added when Wynonna said nothing.

Wynonna didn’t know what to say, but felt like burden had been lifted.

If only she could deal with those four loose ends that were still left.

 

They talked about silly innocuous stuff like the new guy Lonnie vindicating Nicole by also fucking up with the toaster oven until Nicole fell asleep. Wynonna slipped out quietly. When she reached the parking lot, her phone rang.

“Yo.”

“Earp,” it was Dolls, “I have news, Calgary PD just sent over CCTV footage, it seems they have on film a woman matching Waverly’s description.”

Wynonna stopped cold, “Calgary?” Paranoid, she scrutinized every inch of the lot and street she could see, “She’s been in Calgary?”

“She’s been in a few places in Calgary, you can take a look at the footage when you get back.”

She felt sick, after hanging up she got to Gus’s truck and checked every square inch of it before getting in. Not that it would actually stop Mictian.

Taking one last look at Foothills, she pulled out of the parking lot and prayed to all the gods that Mictian was done with Nicole. That it wouldn’t find her there.

They had to hurry now.

 

Back at the station, she sat at the table and scoured the hours of CCTV footage and found that it was, in fact, Waverly.

What the was Mictian doing at a museum? In fact, what the hell was it even doing in Calgary?

Dolls took the seat next to her, “I don’t think it wants to come back out this way.” Wynonna said to him as she finished the last of the footage.

“Neither do I. Too many unsuspecting hosts in the city.”

Oh god he was right, she turned to him, “You don’t think it has already spread do you?”

He shook his head, “I’m not sure, I wouldn’t put it past it though. That’s the whole damn reason for existing.”

“It really doesn’t want to give up Waverly though.” She mused aloud.

“She has powers it could only dream of.” He replied.

True. “So poker night at Shorty’s tomorrow?” She asked

He nodded, “Yep, and after that,” he pulled out a crudely made poster from a folder, “this.” The poster in question was for an underground fighting tournament Doc was hosting.

Not again, “Let me guess, he got the idea from Whiskey Jim?”

Dolls smiled a bit and nodded, “Yep, all are welcome, you have to put in an appearance though.”

Wynonna groaned, loudly, “You are not making me fight to attract some stupid demon?”

His laugh was sputtering and genuine, “No, you just have to be there to attract it.”

“I hate you people.”

“Nah you love us don’t lie.” He said as he rubbed her back.

The gesture surprised her, up until that point he’d been keeping it all business. He must have realized it too, jerking his hand away and standing abruptly.

“Don’t forget tomorrow eight sharp.” He said before speeding out of the room leaving Wynonna confused and hollow.

 

Tom came in sometime later, finding her staring off wistfully into space, he tapped her shoulder.

“It’s like ten thirty Earp go home.”

She shook herself from her thoughts, “Did you get Nicole her damn Gameboy.”

He chuckled, “Yes, she played with it all of fifteen minutes before passing out.” He pulled out the chair for her, she stood, grabbing her jacket before following him out.

“So you going to that tournament?” She asked.

He let out an anguished moan, “No Beth caught wind of it and won’t let me.” He turned, pouted, “Too old and gonna get my ass kicked.”

Wynonna laughed, “Aww she cares about you.”

Tom scoffed, “I’m a man Earp, I got a reputation to uphold.”

Linda, passing by them on her way to start the overnight shift laughed, “I can beat your ass and I’m pushing fifty.”

Tom muttered something sounding like _midget she-hulk_ before bidding Wynonna good night and veering off to evidence room.

Instead of heading home, Wynonna pulled into Shorty’s. For being technically abandoned, the place was packed. Doc was stationed at the bar reading from a tablet with various liquors lined up in front of him.

“Whatchu up to?” She asked as she settled in one of the seats.

“Well Gus asked me to make her this thing called a Long Island Ice Tea.” He looked at her utterly perplexed, “It doesn’t have any tea in it.”

“Just a name Doc, you wanna hook me up with my friend Johnnie.”

Doc spun quickly, grabbing a bottle and glass setting them down in front of her.

“So poker tomorrow, you start setting up yet?”

He nodded, “I have hidden three crystals for light magic witches, the fourth will be placed should Mictian make an appearance.”

Wynonna shook her head, “She’s dark and I know I’m right.”

“We will find out.” He said as he started measuring out rum.

 

Tomorrow night, eight ‘o clock came way too quick, the place was packed again. Wynonna and Dolls took up a table in the back near the stairs. Doc had taken upon himself to be the dealer, he had a good view of the entrance and the crowd behind the players.

Gus had the fourth crystal in her pocket, sat at the other side of the bar.

All they needed was Mictian.

Down to the final four, and nearly ten, they’d given up hope it would show. Then Doc noticed the door open and a tiny figure bundled in an enormous red parka shuffled in. he only saw a brief flash of face, but he knew who it was instantly.

He tapped the side of the table to alert Wynonna and Dolls, Wynonna then got up to browse the jukebox. Gus quietly slipped off the stool she was on and placed the obsidian crystal in the corner.

Wynonna then turned to try and catch Mictian’s eye, and looked right into the black eyes of her baby sister. With a smirk Mictian slipped away from the crowd and out the door.

She was right, holy shit she was actually right.

 

Poker night thankfully was not deemed a bust by Lucado. Doc’s half-baked fight club idea was scheduled for Sunday night. If Mictian was going to show up at poker night, it was certainly not going to miss people punching the Christ out of each other.

 

Before the fights Wynonna went to visit Nicole. At the nurses’ station sat a more cheerful looking woman than the one she dealt with the week prior.

“Let me guess, Deputy Haught?” The woman, mix raced with what seemed to be a real smile asked Wynonna as she approached the counter.

“Uh yep.” She replied with a nod.

“She certainly is popular today, her ex and son are here as well, you can go right in.”

Wynonna thanked her and headed into the room, where she found Abby seated beside the bed working on her laptop while Nicole, and Nicholas; who was laying beside her played on some hand held device.

“Is that the Gameboy?” She asked.

Nicholas shot her a disgusted look, “A 3DS.”

“Ok then.” Was all she had to say to that.

Abby rolled her eyes, “He hates when you mislabel things, much like his mother.”

Nicole shot her a dopey, yet wiry grin. Wynonna pulled up a visitor’s chair, “So whatcha guys playin’?”

“Pokémon.” Nicole answered.

“I brought Nicholas’s homework with us so somebody,” she emphasized the somebody, giving the bed ridden woman the hairy eye, “could help their son with it.”

“Oh, what ish it?” Nicole asked her son.

“Fractions.” He said, scrunching his face up bitterly.

“Ohh,” Nicole gave Wynonna a panicked look, “I think I’m a little too tired for that.”

This amused Wynonna, a lot, “Bitch you can’t do fractions?” She asked, refusing to let it slide.

“It’s why she enlisted.” Abby said quickly.

“Hey!” Nicole shouted, indignant.

Nicholas giggled, “Whosh shide are you on?” Nicole complained.

“Ours.” Abby answered, “Learn math.”

Wynonna had a very pleasant time with the trio, but something kept niggling at her. Why the hell were they divorced?

Abby excused herself to go find coffee, Wynonna got up to join her. They ventured down to the cafeteria in relative silence before Wynonna couldn’t stand it and asked while they were in a stairwell, “So why are you guys divorced?”

Abby stopped dead, “Why in god’s name would you ask that here? Now?”

The censure had Wynonna stinging with embarrassment but since she asked, “You get along so well, I—”

Abby grabbed her arm, cutting short what she had to say and led them to a more deserted area. “Let me get my shitty cafeteria coffee first.”

After grabbing her shitty coffee, Abby led them to a sparsely populated waiting area, after a couple of sips and some complaints about the taste she started, “You know how Nicole is a veteran right?” When Wynonna nodded she continued, “Well she had, and probably still does, and maybe a hell of a lot worse now, post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Wynonna already didn’t like where this was headed… god she shouldn’t have asked.

“She was getting therapy for it at the time,” she sighed, fidgeted with her coffee cup, “she was doing great, really great, had a job in security, applied for the Academy–” She sucked in a breath, let it out slow.

“We were at a good point in our lives.” She continued, Wynonna saw the tears form, threatening to fall. “But it was Canada Day, and our neighbors had some bottle rockets… M80s, I don’t know how they got them.

She stopped briefly, just stared into space, lost in the memory she was sharing. Wynonna lightly brushed a hand over her arm, snapping her back to reality, “Anyway, it got dark, they set them off–

“Her one sticking point really, in therapy I mean. The one thing she couldn’t leave on the battlefield.”

Wynonna knew exactly where this was heading now, and felt like a heaping pile of shit for bringing it up.

“Well they set them off and she, she just went nuts.” The tears streamed silently now, “I was stupid, I-I tried to stop her, calm her down, but…”

She dropped into the closest chair, wiped her face with the back of her hand, “Her eyes, Wynonna, she wasn’t seeing anything in front of her… she was somewhere else.

“She knocked me down and just started hitting me, and hitting, and hitting.”

Wynonna stood stock still, this, this couldn’t possibly be the same woman in that hospital bed, who risked her life for her, who acted like a big dumb puppy around her little sister?

“Well I guess while that was all happening Nicholas had left the house and wandered over to a neighbor’s… he was barely four, and they took him back and, and found me.”

She laughed humorlessly, sipped her coffee, “Found me in the kitchen in my own blood and Nicole underneath the kitchen table catatonic.”

Horrified, Wynonna spat out, “How does she have a badge?”

Abby looked at her, with no real emotion and said, “I didn’t press charges.”

What? Appalled, Wynonna fell back into the chair behind her, “Why?”

There was a hint of anger in Abby’s eyes, “She was not, and is still not, a violent person.”

“I beg to differ. How the hell did she not end up in the slammer anyway?”

“I’m a lawyer Earp,” she replied bitterly, “and she had at that point no criminal history and no record of psychotic episodes.”

But still, “How does she have a badge?” Seriously, there should have been no way in the cold hell of Canada for Nicole to ever set foot in an academy. They weren’t like the States.

“Once I could get out of bed, I got wheeled up to the psych unit seeing as we were ironically in the same hospital and gave her an ultimatum, fix yourself, or never see your son again.”

“And?”

“And she did.” She drank more of her shitty coffee, “She put herself into intensive therapy, did everything required of her… and now here we are.”

Wynonna was still confused as hell, “The academy took her after that?”

“Well not at first, she had to jump through quite a few hoops and pass more psych tests than were probably required to prove she was mentally fit,” she got up to throw away the rest of the shitty coffee, “it helped her to have connections inside too.”

“I just can’t believe this.” She really couldn’t. Couldn’t believe and didn’t know what to say about it.

“Well you wanted to know so damn bad.”

“Well now I regret it.” She shot up out of the chair, “We should probably get back.”

 

“Nick get me momsh tablet.” Nicholas hopped off the bed and rooted around Abby’s bag. He hopped back up, handing it to her.

With shaky hands she powered it up, “What’s the pashword dude?” She asked her son.

“Uhhh, wedding song?” He answered, unsure.

“Okay,” She tried it, adding 05 at the end. Sure enough, he was right, “Too predictable, your mom.”

It had been three months, but she was sure she’d still have some followers, and logged onto Tumblr and checked her account. She had hundreds of messages, “If thish ish all dishcoursh, I won’t be surprished.”

“You really like arguing with people.” Nicholas said.

“People are dumb.” She replied bitterly. Thankfully it wasn’t all discourse, a lot her mutuals had been worried about her. She’d been on the local news according to Nedley, she wondered if that made its way south of the border.

I wonder how I look, she opened the camera feature, “Oh Jeshush!” Her goddamn face, it looked so much worse than the last time she saw it.

“Oh boy,” against her better judgement, she took a selfie and posted it with a comment, Don’t unfollow I’m alive. “Wanna look at memesh.”

Nicholas nodded eagerly, so they scrolled the endless scroll together until her post started getting notes.

Bitch where u been thought u died!

Oh my god ur face wat happened?!?!?

I saw the news I thought u were ded!

She shouldn’t have been as surprised as she was, but that fact that a bunch of borderline strangers on the internet cared that she was alive made her feel a little less dead inside.

Then an old friend and mutual she met in Afghanistan reblogged, ‘arizonaarmyguy reblogged your post’ Oh my god I thought you were dead nobody knew anything what the hell happened?!

_What happened? Oh nothing much just spent like two months getting tortured by demons_. He DM’d her asking what hospital she was at, him and Linds were coming up no ifs, ands, or buts.

“Who’s that guy mama.” Nicholas asked pointing to his url.

“Jusht an old friend.” She didn’t want to tell him, have him worry, but her unsteady fingers told him Foothills and now he was on his way.

Wynonna and Abby stood quietly outside the door, Wynonna cast a quick glance at the other woman; who stood pinching the bridge of her nose and muttering curses.

Abby walked in first, “Got two words, attention, whore.”

“No I am not.” Nicole replied, grinning

“How’d you get on that anyway?”

“You’re sho obvioush, your eight-year-old knowsh.”

“Nicholas.” Abby scolded, though she couldn’t be too mad at him. Nicole on the other hand, “Stop enabling bad behavior.”

“I did no shuch thing.” Nicole’s grin only widened.

“Neither of them can lie to me very well.” Abby told Wynonna smugly.

These people are a damn trip, Wynonna thought, “You on Facebook?”

“Tumblr.”

“The fuck is that?”

Abby snorted, “LiveJournal for gays.”

Nicole laughed until her ribs protested and clutched her chest in pain.

“It wasn’t that funny, don’t bust your stitches over it.”

Wynonna stayed awhile longer, just until the sun began to dip behind the buildings. Abby and Nicholas followed suit, and said their good-byes at the hospital entrance.

 

It was pushing six o’clock by the time she got back into Purgatory, since nobody blew up her phone she assumed nothing new happened, she bypassed the station entirely and headed for home.

Pulling into the driveway, she saw nearly a dozen cars, both civilian and police. “My house is not a club!” Wynonna half shouted as she got out of the truck. Jogging up the steps she burst through the door looking for a fight but found the house as empty as a Canadian Target.

“Hello?” She called out.

“It’s just me Earp.” Dolls’s answered, maybe from the kitchen.

She found him at the table eating some fancy salad in a fancy red sweater. “S–so where are all the owners of those vehicles out front.”

As he chewed, he smiled, confusing her.

“That is the smile of a man who’s just killed a bunch of yokel cops.”

Swallowing he replied, “Nah, they’re out back trying to dig up the ammonite.”

“Why?” Really, why?

“Something about it maybe helping with Waverly, I don’t know I wasn’t really paying attention to their crazy ass ideas.” He went back to his salad.

“Yeah ok just let a bunch of cops dig up my property sure great.” She stormed past him and out the back door. She found them all huddled around a gaping hole.

“Don’t see any yet!” Someone down in the hole yelled.

“Keep diggin’ Lee, can’t be too far down.” Frank answered.

“The hell are you fuckin’ people doin’!” Wynonna shouted at them.

All twenty people turned to face her, “Gettin’ some of that ammonite shit,” Leon said, “could come in handy in the future.”

These fucking people, “So none of you thought to text me first?”

“Gus said it was ok.” Said Linda.

Wynonna wanted to pull her damn hair out, “Not her house!”

“It’s just rocks Earp relax.”

If Wynonna thought she could actually take Linda in a fight, she’d would have fought her right there. But fat chance of that happening, so instead she marched right back into the house, grabbed a bottle of whiskey, a glass, sat down and called Gus.

“They were thinking of putting some in the station, not a bad idea.” Gus told her once she stopped yelling long enough to for the woman to speak.

“Can you people at least tell me these things before you do them?”

“To be completely honest, I thought one of them was going to be adult enough to do that.”

Wynonna groaned and lightly rapped her head on the table, “You still there?” She heard Gus say.

“Yeah unfortunately.”

“Anyway sorry about that, I gotta go be home later tonight.”

Gus hung up, Wynonna slid the phone away from her while Dolls watched in amusement.

“I can feel your smile, stop it.” She said, knowing his eyes were on her.

“I am doing no such thing.” He said as he got up to do his dishes.

 “So I learned something new about Nicole today.” She said, watching him scrub and dry his plate.

“Oh yeah what?”

Sipping her whiskey, “She’s a wife beater with a badge.”

Dolls sighed and put his half-scrubbed utensils aside. Her nonchalant tone couldn’t mask her anger from him. He wiped his hands and sat back down.

“She is not a wife beater.” Wynonna sucked in a breath that had him throwing up a hand to stop her incoming rant. “If that woman was a wife beater would her ex-wife be by her side right now?”

No, probably not. Wynonna shook her head, “How’d she get a badge though?”

He winced a little, “She has a lot of connections, a lot of ways to bury that incident.”

She felt a bit of the anger she had earlier bubble back up again, “That’s so wrong.”

Dolls nodded, “It may be Earp, but she’s not a bad person. She’s been trying her damnedest to make up for it.” He watched her sag in her seat, “She’s not your father Earp.”

No? Maybe not, but that didn’t stop her from lying awake that night thinking about her daddy, her mom. It didn’t keep her from trying to make connections from where there weren’t any. No, her father was a bastard. Ward Earp was a bastard, at least Nicole Haught had the sense to rectify her shitty behavior.

Her father was beyond that.

Sunday couldn’t come fast enough.

 

And then it did. The warehouse was starting to slowly fill, with some rather questionable looking people. Doc was in the corner handling the bets and entrants, with glee.

“Dolls people are making bets.” Wynonna said as she watched Doc take names and money.

“It’s, it’s for show.” He replied hesitantly.

“What I’m about to do to Gary Hines is not for show.” Linda said as she passed them, with murder in her eyes.

That was a bit too disconcerting for Wynonna, “Ok what is going on?”

Dolls who knew everything, because he was supposed to know everything, turned to her with a mildly concerned expression, “I have no idea.”

She grabbed his hand and dragged him over to Doc, “Doc? Doc you asshole!”

Doc, hearing her shouts, looked over at them with an innocent pout, “Why are you out here calling me names, what did I do?”

“You know what you did!” Wynonna shouted letting go of Dolls to shove at Doc. “Why are people betting? This was supposed to be for show!”

Doc’s little pout turned into pursed lips and furrowed brows, “No one told me that.”

Wynonna’s frustrated yell managed to echo through building. She mean mugged any gawkers and turned her attention back to the opportunistic clown in front of her.

“If Mictian comes here tonight I’m putting a hundred on Waverly’s skinny butt kicking yours!”

She stormed off before he could retort, Dolls stood arms crossed, with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Are you going to bet a hundred on the creature as well?”

He smirked, “If the opportunity presents itself.” And walked away.

All the enthusiasm and joy Doc had had, withered away. “I need a smoke.”

Despite what people may have thought about her, Wynonna actually was not that big on fights, professional or amateur or really any kind of violence. So instead of watching a forty five year old Asian woman beat the shit out of some twenty something tweaker, she alternated between hanging in the back of the crowd and prowling the halls for Mictian.

Which would eventually pay off, as she rounded the corner, she saw Waverly dressed in some hilariously gaudy glittery purple dress that barely passed her crotch, shimmery blue leggings, and purple Uggs resting against the frame of a busted emergency exit door. Looks like Mictian decided to pull a chapter from Waverly’s fashion handbook. She ducked behind a couple of crates and texted Dolls.

They’d get her this time.

As she peered back up, Waverly was no longer at the door, chancing it, Wynonna sprinted to the door and spotted Waverly as she was walking into the main floor.

As Dolls spotted her, he placed the last black tourmaline crystal as she stepped into range.

A white force field briefly materialized, causing all participants to stop in confusion. Mictian roared as it realized it was trapped. Wynonna hurried in pulling another crystal from her jacket pocket, they were going box it in as much as they could.

As it roared, all of the fight’s participants fled the room leaving Dolls, Wynonna, Doc, and the deputies. They circled it, placing crystals, making the field smaller and smaller.

“I’ll kill you!” Mictian screamed. As they remained just outside of the field, Mictian futilely struggled against it. “I’ll kill all of you!”

Dolls pulled a talisman from his pocket, made from jade and agate, he held it out as he stepped into the field. Mictian flicked a wrist to try to throw him, but the talisman absorbed the attack.

“You’re not getting away this time.” He said calmly.

“You can’t stop me, I am everywhere!” It shrieked.

It was desperate now. As Dolls backed it up against the force field Leon and Doc came up behind it with Leon grabbing Waverly’s arms. It shrieked and writhed, kicked at Dolls, Doc unscrewed the flask containing the potion that would exorcise Mictian and grabbed Waverly’s face, popping her mouth open.

He drained the contents of the flask down her throat. Realizing Mictian could try to spit it up, Wynonna rushed over and held Waverly’s nose closed.

She swallowed it and immediately sank to her knees in agony, and within moments began vomiting black slime everywhere.

A serpent creature emerged from the goo, Doc dragged Waverly’s unconscious body away, Wynonna unholstered peacemaker, aimed, “I think it’s about time you went and fucked yourself, make your peace.”

She fired, killing the creature instantly. It was over. Silence followed as everyone stood around staring blankly at each other, they really did it, holy shit.

Waverly groaned, pulling Wynonna into reality. She rushed over, “Baby girl? Can you hear me?”

She smacked Waverly’s cheek lightly, getting Waverly to open her eyes. She groaned louder as her eyes slowly opened.

“Wynonna?”

“I’m here.” Wynonna said as she pulled Waverly into a bone crushing hug.

Still disoriented, Waverly weakly returned the hug, “Where am I?” She asked, eyes scanning the large room.

“Oh it’s a long story baby.” Wynonna replied. Then it hit her, “Wait you don’t remember?”

Waverly shook her head, “No…”

“What do you remember?”

Waverly thought for a moment, her eyes grew wide and panicky, “Um I had blood on me and Nicole was there — where’s Nicole?” She started squirming against Wynonna, craning her head over Wynonna’s shoulder where she found they weren’t actually alone.

“Hello.” Waverly said cautiously to the deputies standing behind her sister. They all waved awkwardly, Doc tipped his hat and Dolls nodded. “Where’s Nicole?” She repeated, as she tried to break away from the hug.

“Uh,” how in god’s name was she supposed to explain that, “she’s uh, uh…”

Waverly waited for her to finish with frustrated anticipation.

“In the hospital…”

Waverly gasped and wriggled herself free, “Which one I have to see her!”

Doc intercepted her, scooping the tiny woman up before she could dash out of the room, “How about we get you checked out first and then we can talk about the good Officer?”

Waverly snatched his hat off his head, smacking him with it, “Put me the fuck down! I can walk!”

Wynonna and Dolls watched the struggle passively. Dolls pulled out his phone, “I have to call Lucado and get a hazmat team in here.”

“Right,” Wynonna shuffled away from the goo puddles, “so how are we going to tell Nicole about this?”

He shot her a dirty look, “We’re not,” he nodded as her arms went up, “you saw how she reacted when you asked her about Waverly, I’ll bet money Mictian is responsible for good portion of her injuries.”

He was right, “Fuck. Waverly’s not going to take no for an answer.”

“Well she’s going to have to right now.” He said briskly before walking away to place his call.

Damn it.

 

That night, Waverly was brought via helicopter to Black Badge’s facility for testing and treatment. Wynonna stayed with her the whole time. She was scared but thankfully it wasn’t anything for than a quick check up and blood work.

But she didn’t remember anything, not the fight in the warehouse, any of Mictian’s galivanting through Calgary, or Nicole’s captivity. In which she had to omit pretty much all of it and just asked instead, “Do you remember being in a ski lodge?”

That was a big fat no.

In the infirmary, Waverly slept soundly cuddled up to Wynonna, who was still awake, mind going a mile a minute.

_She doesn’t know she has powers._

_She doesn’t know she’s a witch._

_She doesn’t know we’re probably not related._

She held her little sister close, Waverly was here, she was safe.

She thought of Mictian.

One down.

Three to go.

 

It was a relief for Wynonna to finally have Waverly home, as Dolls’s SUV pulled into the drive way she held her breath for a moment, waiting for the energy barrier to appear. When it didn’t, she let it out slow, and pulled Waverly in for a hug.

“You keep hugging me stop!” Waverly giggled, but didn’t bother to fight her sister.

“It has been three months I’ll hug you as much as god damn want.”

“I can’t believe that, it feels like I was just here yesterday.” Waverly replied. As the car rolled to a stop she extricated herself from Wynonna’s vicegrip and hopped out.

“Whose car is that?” She asked, pointing to Nicole’s grey Corolla.

“That would be your girlfriend’s.”

Puzzled, Waverly circled the car, “I’ve never seen this before, why is it sexy?”

Wynonna let out a loud ha and felt vindicated, even Waverly thought the damn thing was hot. Then Waverly noticed the key mark on the car.

“Ooooh who did that?”

Wynonna’s mouth started to say you, but she pursed her lips shut before the words could slip out.

That didn’t go unnoticed by her sister, “Were you going to say me?”

Damn it, insulted Waverly pointed to the huge scratch and shouted, “I would never do that!”

“No baby girl it was…” The words died before she could spit them out, and she sighed instead.

Of course that depressing topic was going to pop back up again, Waverly frowned and nodded before heading up the steps.

Wynonna headed back over to Dolls, “You coming in?”

He shook his head, “I have to head into the station, Lucado wants us to focus our efforts on Svane and Milton now so Nedley wants me to help coordinate a manhunt for them.”

“What about the Stone Witch?”

He made some annoyed expression before answering, “Right now she’s not considered to be priority, don’t ask me why.”

Wynonna just nodded, it wasn’t his fault he was just the foot soldier. Maybe with Black Badge focusing their efforts on the other two, she could track Clootie herself. No she’d have to bring in Doc, he helped bury the bitch after all.

“You should head inside.”

“Call me later.”

He nodded and they parted ways. Wynonna jogged up the steps and let them both inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you guys think about season 3 so far? I've got some mixed feelings but I feel vindicated that Nicole was canonically a smoker.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic and yes I know I'm not that great at dialogue, I am conversationally stunted in real life.  
> Constructive criticism is welcome (emphasis on constructive)  
> 


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